346 Numismatic Society of London. [No. 112. 



By this statement it would appear, that the proportion of silver (the 

 standard medium of Asiatic commerce in the age of Bactrian independ- 

 ence, as at present) materially diminished under the Graeco-Indians, 

 until a substitution of potin, probably to make up the deficiency of 

 the former, appears in the coinage of Hermseus, the last of the Greek 

 Soters ; while the silver bears scarcely any proportion to the copper 

 under the Indo-Scythians and Indo-Parthians, and, at first, altogether 

 disappears ; whereas, the potin (which was used in great extent in the con- 

 temporary coinage of Parthia), is continued : and this may account for 

 the silver drachms of Menander and Apollodotus being then in circulation. 



The deficiency of silver seems, however, to have been compensated 

 by an extensive issue of gold, under the first Indo-Scythic princes; of 

 which there are, likewise, many fine unpublished examples in the col- 

 lection of the East India Company. 



The conclusion seems forced on us, that the progressive decrease of 

 silver under the Greek rulers, indicates a decrease in commercial pros- 

 perity, arising from the Scythian occupation, first of Bactria, and after- 

 wards of Bactrian- India ; while this appears to be contradicted by the 

 gold issue of the conquerors. 



But, as the latter have left no known remains of a coinage anterior 

 to their occupation of Bactrian-India, we may infer, first, that the 

 mintage of the line of Euthydemus continued in circulation under the 

 Bactro- Scythians, as did that of the line of Menander under the Indo- 

 Scythians ; and, secondly, that plunder (of the temples ? in connexion 

 with the introduction of the Parthian worship, as above), rather than 

 commerce, was the source of the sudden riches evinced by the mintage 

 of the latter. 



This view will, besides, afford an additional and weighty reason for 

 referring the issuers of the gold coinage — the probable invaders and 

 plunderers of the Greek provinces — to the head of the dynasty, as the 

 immediate successors of the line of Menander ; to which position they 

 are equally referred by their imitations of the mintage of Hermseus, 

 found with the coins of that prince, and by the usurped title of 2wrr/£). 



In agreement with the above, the Indo-Scythic issue would appear 

 greatly to have degenerated under the latter princes of the dynasty, 

 when their exhausted dominions probably no longer afforded materials 

 for an issue in the precious metals. 



