JOURNAL 
OF THE 
-ASTATIC SOCIETY. 
—_—e-— 
Part I1—HISTORY, LITERATURE, &c. 
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No. IJ.—1865. 
RAR RRR eee ee 

* 
Ancient Indian Weights, No. I1I.—By Hi. Twomas, Esq. 
[Received 15th March, 1865. ] 
THE EARLIEST INDIAN COINAGE. 
- So many questions connected with the earliest form of Indian money 
have been incidentally adverted to in the examination of the weights 
upon which it was based, and from whose very elements as divisional 
sections of metal, all Indian coinages took their origin, that but little re- 
mains to be said in regard to the introductory phase of local numismatic 
art, beyond a reference to the technic details, and a casual review of the 
symbols impressed upon these normal measures of value. The con- 
trast, however, between the mechanical adaptations of the east and 
west may properly claim a momentary notice, with the view of testing 
the validity of the assumption I have previously hazarded respecting 
the complete independence of the invention of a metallic circulating 
medium by the people of Hindustan.* 
_ Many years ago the late Mr, Burgon} correctly traced, from the then 
comparatively limited data, the germ and initial development of the 
art of coining money in Western Asia, describing the process as ema- 
-* Num. Chron., N. 8., vol. iii note, p. 226; and more in detail in my edition 
of Prinsep’s “ Wssays’’ (Murray, London, 1858), vol. i. p. 217, 
7 Numismatic Journal, 1887, vol. i, p. 118. 
“I 
