1837.] Specimens of Indo- Sassanian Coins. 289 



Sanscrit, but neither with the aid of modern nor ancient alphabets 

 could the sentence be made out. The individual letters seemed to be 



Shortly afterwards, among the coins procured for me by Kera'mat 

 Ali, another instance of the mixture of legends was discovered (Vol. 

 III. PI. XXV. p. 439) ; and here the name was clearly ^"^^ Sri 

 Vasudeva, either denoting the god Krishna, or the Indian monarch 

 of that name alluded to in the Persian histories. Mr. Masson's last 

 memoir containing one or two coins of the same class, led to a fresh 

 scrutiny of our respective cabinets, whence with Capt. Cunningham's 

 aid I have now assembled a tolerable group of Indo-Sassanian speci- 

 mens, for inspection at least, though it will be difficult to say much 

 about them. 



The distinctive characters of the Sassanian or Parthian coins are, 

 the fire-altar reverse, the peculiar head-dress of the king with flowing 

 fillets, — sometimes the latter attached to the shoulders, — and a legend 

 in the Pehlevi character. There is, however, as Mr. Masson has 

 pointed out in a memoir published in this Journal*, a marked 

 difference between our coins, (called by Tod " of a Parthian dynasty 

 unknown to history,") and the genuine series of Persia proper. 



Sassanian coins, of the type common to Persia, are never found at 

 Beghram, according to Masson, although they are brought for sale in 

 abundance to the bazar of Cdbul. Two exceptions, however, are 

 noted, — one, an extensive series of small copper coins having a 

 crowned head on the obverse, with a name in the same character as 

 that on fig. 3, greatly resembling the corrupted Greek of the dete- 

 riorated Nanorao group — the commonest inscription can be exactly 

 represented by the English type poaopo- One of this group, sup- 

 posed by Mr. Masson to bear the Bamidn name, was depicted in his 

 note on the antiquities of that place in Vol. V. On the reverse of 

 all these is the fire-altar without supporters, " demonstrating, at least," 

 as Mr. Masson writes, " that they were adorers of Mithra ; while 

 from the numbers in which these coins occur at Beghram, it may be 

 further inferred that they were current there, and that the sovereigns 

 they commemorate ruled there: although the difficulty then presents 

 itself to determine at what period to introduce their sway, with the 

 mass of Greek and Indo-Scythic coins before us. The coins them- 

 selves, however numerous, may be reduced into three series with 

 reference to the nature of the head-dress. The first class bearing a 

 helmet, the second a crown with a ball above it, and the third a 

 * Note on the B&mian antiquities, vol. V. p. 711. 



