JOURNAL 



OF 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



JVo. 28.— April, 1834. 



I. — Memoir on the Ancient Coins found at Beghram, in the Kohistdn 

 of Kabul. By Chas. Masson. 

 [Read at the Meeting of the 30th instant.] 



[We hasten to give to the world the results of Mr. Masson's successful researches 

 in the Numismatology of Bactria, for the communication of which to this 

 Journal we are mainly indebted to Dr. J. Gerard, who was for some days in 

 company with the author at Kabul, and had an opportunity of inspecting his 

 large and valuable collection of coins, and of certifying, that the drawings of 

 those selected to illustrate the present memoir are faithful and accurate. 



We are most happy to comply with the author's request in sending copies of the 

 memoir to the several officers and gentlemen indicated.] 



It will be unnecessary in this place to enter upon a detail of Alexan- 

 der's conquests in central Asia, the rise and fall of the Greek Bactrian 

 monarch), and other events, which, as they have lately become a topic 

 of popular attention, are daily receiving more familiar illustration. I 

 shall therefore proceed at once to the subject of this memoir. 



In July of the present year (1833), I left the city of Kabul, to explore 

 the districts north of it, at the base of the mountains Hindoo Kiish, 

 with the primary object of identifying the site of Alexandria ad Cauca- 

 sum. Although upon this question I defer a decision, until I can 

 consult the ancient authorities, there being many spots which would 

 agree therewith in a local point of view, — I was recompensed by the 

 discovery of numerous interesting objects, and among them of the site 

 of an ancient city of immense extent, on the plain now called Beghram, 

 near the confluence of the rivers of Ghorbund and Punjsheer, and at 

 the head of the high road leading from Khwojeh Khedree of Kohis- 

 tan, to Nijrow, Taghow, Lughman and Jelalabad. I soon learned 

 that large numbers of coins were continually found on the plain of 

 u 



