531 



Notes on Captain Hay's Bactrian Coins. By Capi. A. Cunningham. 



PLATE I. 



No. 1. — A square copper coin, of middle size and good make, and 

 in fair preservation. I recognize this piece at once, from its Bactrian 

 legend, as a coin of Azilises :— it is not unique, though hitherto 

 unpublished ; for I have seen two other specimens of the same coin, 

 one of which has the Bactrian legend nearly perfect; and from it 

 I have completed the following description of Captain Hay's coin. 



Obverse. — The figure of the king bare-headed and diademed on 

 horseback turned to the right, the end of the fillet floating behind his 

 head ; above the horse's head a mark, which may be either a plume 

 or the Bactrian letters ri or ti: enclosed in a square, formed of dotted 

 lines. Legend, disposed on all four sides, — /BaatAsojc /3A2IAEQN 

 METAAoY aqiXicrov. — " (Coin) of the great king of kings, 

 Azilises." 



Reverse. — Enclosed in a square, the figure of Hercules naked, seat- 

 ed on a rock and turned to the left ; leaning forward and holding in 

 his right hand a club, which rests on his thigh ; his left hand leaning 

 on the rock, with two streamers floating behind his head. In the 

 field a monogram composed of the two identical marks found on the 

 reverse of the silver coin of Azilises (See Jour. des. Sav. for April, 

 1836, Vignette No. 20: and Bengal As. Soc. Jour, for June 1835, 

 plate xxiii. fig. 27) — The upper part of our monogram, which is that 

 to the right of the figure of Victory on the silver coin, is composed of 

 the Bactrian letters si. Legend in Bactrian characters '(Ma) 

 harajasa mahatasa Azilisa(sa). " (Coin) of the great king, the 

 mighty Azilises. 



The type of this remarkable piece (which is on both sides identical 

 with that of the coins of Spalyris), the square form common to both, 

 and the similarity of make and general appearance, all tend to prove 

 that these two princes were contemporaries of the same dynasty, 

 and most probably of the same family. For the legend of the coins 



of spaiyris cdaaypidc aikaidy aaEa+dytdy ba- 



EIAElLJ C — " (Coin) of Spalyris the just, the brother of the king :" 

 added to the facts before mentioned, renders it nearly certain that 



