1867.] The Initial Coinage of Bengal. 9 



Indian Metrology — may be quoted in their surviving integrity of 

 weight and design, as having furnished the prototypes of a long line 

 of sequent Dehli mintages, and thus contributing the manifest intro- 

 ductory model of all Bengal coinages.* 



The artistic merits of the produce of the southern mints, though 

 Superior in the early copies to the crude introductory issues of Al- 

 tamsh, seldom compete with the contemporary design or execution of 

 the Dehli die-cutters, and soon merge into their own provincialisms, 

 which are progressively exaggerated in the repetition, until, at last, 

 what with the imperfection of the model, the progressive conventiona- 



* There three are varieties of Altamsh's silver coinage, all showing more or 

 less the imperfection of the training of the Indian artists in the reproduction of 

 the official alphabet of their conquerors. The designs of these pieces were clear- 

 ly taken from the old Ghaznf model of Muhammad bin Sam's Dirhams and 

 Dinars, and the indeterminate form of the device itself would seem to indicate 

 that they mark the initial effort of the new Muhammadan silver currency which 

 so soon fixed itself into one unvarying type, and retained its crude and unim- 

 proved lettering for upwards of a century, till Muhammad binTuglilak inaugu- 

 rated his reign by the issue of those choice specimens of the Moneyer's art 

 which stand without compeers in the Dehli series. 



No. 1, Silver. Size, vii. ; weight, 162.5. Supposed to have been struck on 

 the receipt of the recognition of the Khalif of Baghdad in 626 A. H. 



Obverse : square area, with double lines, within a circle. 



Legend, &1}\ J^^j i^s/ &JJ| *J| JJ 



Reverse : Square area, with double lines, within a circle. 



Legend, ^xijOj.^.)\ j.xk\ j.«o.'iJL*+}\ |*U>il| &$* ^ 



No. 2, Silver. Size, viii ; weight, 168.5. Date, 630 a. h. 

 Obverse : Square area, with double lines, 



Legend, ^JdJ\j UW| ^^.^ Ja* )S\ iylkLJ| -j 



w aLoj. + J| -j;A3t^Li i^[kX*uJ\ (JW +1J| j aLJ| _jJ| j 



Reverse : Circular area. 



Legend, ^i-wj | &JJ| Jj^j 6+='' &JU| 51) «J| 21 1 



Margin, *J| |<>A ^ 



Mr. Bayley notices the occasional change of the name of the piece to the 

 generic &.CJ | as well as the ignorant substitution of &U|yo b^aJJL*.*J| for 



the Khalifa true title. J. A. S. B., 1862, p. 207. Col. Guthrie's coin (Typa 

 No. 2) discloses a similar error. 



Legend, ^Jjajj^Ji^j^I^aoU^+Ji *U>JJl 'H- 5 <^* 

 Margin, &acsJ\ iiiA *Sy*> 



No. 3, Silver. Size, viii. ; weight, 163.5 gr. 

 Obverse, as No. 2, but the square area is enclosed in a circle. 

 Reverse : Square area enclosed within a circle, identical with the obverse 

 design. 



2 



