154 Memoir on the Ancient Coins, [April, 



Beghram, and my first excursion put me in possession of about eighty, 

 procured with difficulty, as their owners were suspicious of my mo- 

 tives in collecting them. The coins were of such a type and descrip- 

 tion, as naturally increased my ardor in their research ; and, succeeding 

 in allaying the mistrusts of the finders, I obtained successive parcels, 

 until up to this time (November 28th, 1833), I have accumulated 

 1,865 copper coins and fourteen gold and silver ones, the latter 

 Brahminical and Cufic. Of course many of these are of no value, but 

 I persevered in my collection, under the hope of obtaining ultimately 

 perfect specimens of every type and variety of coin ; in this I have but 

 partially succeeded, so great is the diversity of coins found at this 

 place, that every fresh parcel of 100 or 150 coins yields me one or 

 more with which I was not previously acquainted. 



I may observe, that, on my return to Kabul, from my first excursion, 

 I found two persons there, busy in the collection of coins. I left them 

 the field of the city, and confined my attentions to the more distant and 

 ample one of Beghram. Besides, as my object was not merely the 

 amassing of coins, but the application of them to useful purposes, I 

 hailed with satisfaction the prospect of obtaining a collection from a 

 known spot, with which they would have, of necessity, a definite con- 

 nection, enabling me to speculate with confidence on the points they 

 involved. 



I suppose that no less a number than thirty thousand coins, 

 probably a much larger number, are found annually on the dusht or 

 plain of Beghram, independently of rings, seals, and other trinkets. 

 Gold and silver coins occur but rarely. If we allow a period of five 

 hundred years, since the final extinction of this city, (and I have 

 some idea that negative proof thereof may be adduced,) and if we allow, 

 as I presume is reasonable, that the same or not a less number 

 of coins has been annually extracted from its site, we have a total 

 of fifteen millions, a startling amount, and which will not fail 

 to excite curiosity as to this second Babylon. The antique treasures 

 of Beghram, untilTtheir partial diversion this present season, have been 

 melted in the mint at Kabul, or by the coppersmiths of that city and 

 of Chareekar. The collection of them is made by Afghan shepherds, 

 who sell them by weight at a very low price to itinerant misghurs or 

 coppersmiths, who occasionally visit their tents, and these again melt 

 them down themselves, or vend them at a small profit to the officers of 

 the mint. 



The coins of Beghram comprise five grand classes, viz. Greek, Indo- 

 Scythic, Parthian, and Guebre, Brahminical, and Muhammedan, and each 

 of these classes contains many varieties or series. I have ventured to 



