543 



Appendix to the notice of Forged Bactrian coins in No. 100. 



Since writing the above notice, I have found in Capt. E. Conolly's 

 Journal of Bactrian Numismatics (about to be published) the follow- 

 ing description of a gold coin of Amyntas. 



" Gold coin of square form, in the collection of Lady Sale, pur- 

 chased at Peshawur, in all respects similar to the copper coin of the 

 same king, except that the figures are reversed." 



The square form of this piece — a form hitherto unknown in the 

 gold coinage of Bactria, its perfect identity in shape, in size, and in 

 type (only reversed) with the copper coin of this kind already known, 

 added to its having the same sloping cut in the corner which ex- 

 isted in Col. Stacy's copper specimen ; and also in the forged silver piece 

 of General Allard; all prove, most satisfactorily to my mind, that 

 this square gold coin of Amyntas is likewise a forgery. 



The existence of the sloping cut would alone be to me a sufficient 

 proof of spuriousness of this new piece ; the ignorant forger having 

 been unable to complete the legend of the coin on either side. The 

 circumstance of its having been purchased at Peshawur, where Gene- 

 ral Allard resided so long, and from whence he dispatched to France 

 the drawing of the forged silver coin already mentioned, seems to 

 prove that this gold piece was the production of the same hand 

 that manufactured the spurious silver coin, purchased by General 

 Allard, the type having been reversed with the intention of selling 

 the new piece to General Allard, and of preventing any suspicion 

 of its genuineness arising in the mind of the General, who had pur- 

 chased the silver piece of the same type, from the same person. 



The fact of the type having been reversed, shows an advance in 

 the art of forgery, which should tend to make our countrymen still 

 more cautious in the purchase of Bactrian coins ; and more particularly 

 of pieces in the other metals, which reproduce types already known 

 in copper. 



In the same paper Captain E. Conolly mentions a tetradrachm of 

 Euthydemus belonging to himself, as being " evidently cast." 



There can be no doubt therefore that this " evidently cast' 1 te- 

 tradrachm of Euthydemus is a spurious piece, forged, with many 

 others, to satisfy the demands of our countrymen in Afghanistan, whose 



