160 Memoir on the Ancient Coins, [April, 



serve their ancient name, Jet. The Greek kingdom of Nysa may have 

 sprung up on the subversion of that of Bactria, or, may have been coeval 

 with its latter existence ; be this as it may, we are warranted in the 

 belief, that, it flourished for along subsequent period : and it is only 

 after its extinction that we can consider the coins of kanhpkoS chrono- 

 logically, as we cannot suppose sovereigns reigning synchronously at 

 Nysa, or Jelalabad, and Kabul. The type and general appearance of these 

 coins favor all these suppositions, and while we identify them as belong- 

 ing to a dynasty whose metropolis was at Kabul, we may conclude it to 

 have succeeded the Greek one of Nysa. Whether the Nyssean govern- 

 ment was subverted by Kanishka I cannot determine, but if so, his era 

 must have been considerably later than about 130 B. C. 



The king on these coins appears in the double character of king and 

 priest. My acquaintance with Buddha literature is too slight to enable 

 me to affirm that such was the character of their princes. The altar 

 we can by no means allow to be a fire altar, that is, as connected with 

 the worship of Mithra ; it is simply an altar, to which indeed fire is a 

 general accompaniment, or at least when incense is to be offered, in the 

 act of which the king here appears to be employed. This altar very 

 fortunately occurs, as it permits us to connect at least five distinct varie- 

 ties of coins without the possibility of error. 



Series No. 2. Coins of KAA*ICHC, &c. 

 The exact coincidence of the costume and position of the king, with 

 the presence of the incense altar on these coins, can leave no doubt of 

 their connection with those of KANHPKOS, and establishes the fact of the 

 sovereigns belonging to the same dynasty. A tope opened at Kabul by 

 M. M. HoNiGSBERGERproved to be the sepulchral monument of Kaa$ichc 

 and from it was extracted a basin of factitious metal, with a gold coin, 

 the legend on which was BACIAETC Kaa*ichC-OOH ( a representation of 

 this coin is given as a supplementary one). This discovery is of emi- 

 nent importance, as fixing the capital of the sovereigns of this dynasty 

 beyond doubt. The copper medals of KAa*ichc, are of very fair exe- 

 cution ; the legends on the obverses corrupted, but very legible Greek. 

 They ally with the gold medal, have the same monogram OOH, which may 

 be of much asistance. I incline to place the series of KAA*ICHC before 

 that of KANHPK02 in a chronological point of view. 



- Series No. 3. 

 This series may very safely be placed in succession to the two 

 former, while the absence of the altar proves them distinct. I have not 

 leisure to offer many remarks, which these coins suggest ; but as the 

 legends are evidently Greek, or intended for such, I trust that eventually 

 we shall be able to appropriate them with certainty. 



