1851.] On Sassanian Coins. 525 



A letter from Edward Thomas, Esq. C. S. On Sassanian Coins. 



My Dear Dr. Sprenger. — I send you herewith a wood-cut of a 

 Coin I wish you to insert in the next number of the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society, with a view to soliciting the aid of your numismatic 

 supporters in contributing impressions of any similar specimens to be 

 found in their cabinets. 



The subject of Sassanian influence in India, its epoch, and the 

 boundaries over which Zoroastrian belief extended, is fraught with high 

 interest in itself, but it possesses an enhanced claim upon our attention 

 in the light it promises to throw upon the anterior, or Scythic, period 

 of Indian history. 



Up to this time, we have but scant materials, either legendary or 

 monumental, whereby to illustrate the first named question, and we 

 dare scarcely hope that Numismatic Science can do much to help our 

 cause, as the number and variety of Indo-Sassanian Coins is clearly 

 limited. The piece about to be described, however, places us a mate- 

 rial step in advance, and Indian Annals have already received such 

 great and un-hoped for elucidation from this section of Antiquarian 

 research, that we have a right even here to augur well for our future. 

 The Coin of which the accompanying engraving is a facsimile, pre- 

 sents us with a strictly Rajput name impressed upon the surface of a 

 piece of money of a purely Sassanian type. I will not at present 

 venture into the ample field of speculation this association opens 

 out, but content myself with noticing the bare fact, trusting that your 

 call for new specimens, may succeed in drawing forth from dark- 

 corners, other coins of this class, thus securing an extended circle 

 of medallic data, from which to deduce more com- 

 prehensive and legitimate inferences than the 

 evidence of a single piece admits of. 



The coin under review was obtained by Major 

 Nuthall of the Commissariat Department during a 

 late march to Peshawur. It is of silver, and weighs 

 52 grains. The Obverse, here represented,* bears 

 the name of 



* The original is in imperfect preservation, especially as regards the neck of the 

 figure— I have left the letters composing the legend unshaded, in order to render 

 more exactly their true form. 



