58 The Initial Coinage of Bengal. [No. 1, 



Legends, both obverse and reverse as in No. 1 type. 

 Marginal legend, 

 AjU*x* j, &****> J o l *$ **~ ^Ij^ £/*** ^ *'** V>* 

 The Kooch Bahar trove must have been rich in this type of coin, 

 and of the particular year a. h. 758, as out of 109 specimens in Col. 

 Guthrie's collection, there is no single example of any other date. 



No. 16. 

 Sonargaon, a. h. 753, 754, 755, 756, 757, 758. 

 Type No. 3. Size, vii. Present weight, 166 grs. after the obvious 

 reduction by boring out. Plate II., fig. 10. 

 Obverse, Square area. 



Reverse, Circular area, with broad margin. 

 Obv. Rev. 





&iHsJ\ ^♦j 



Margin, 



IX.— SIKANDAR BIN ILI'A'S. 



This king — the second only in the still incomplete assertion of 

 local independence of allegiance to the throne of Dehli — exhibits in 

 the material wealth of his national coinage the striking progress 

 incident to comparative freedom and identity of home interests, which 

 may be achieved, almost on the instant, by the denizens of a commer- 

 cial centre so favoured by nature as the Delta of the Granges. 



Tried by such a test, few statistical returns could present more 

 effectively the contrast disclosed in the Kooch Bahar treasure between 

 the accumulated produce of the Bengal Mints, representing a century 

 and a quarter's limited activity, attended with all the advantages 

 of a diffused circulation, but under a subordinate government, as 

 compared with the overwhelming array of coins bearing the impress 

 of a single unfettered monarch, whose money was, in effect, new 

 from the dies. To numismatists the enhanced proportion will be 



