THE COINAGE OF TIBET. 15 



seem to have been taken from, on Plates IV(A) and IV(B), fig. 13. This coin is a 

 Newar coin of Jaya Jagajjaya Malla Deva and bears date 852 (Newar Sambat) corres- 

 ponding to 1732 A.D. 



The Ga-den tang-ka (Plates IV(A) and IV(B), fig. 14) both on its obverse and 

 reverse is an exact copy of the coin of Jaya Jagajjaya. On the obverse, the form of 

 the eight leaves or petals, which contain the inscription, has been faithfully copied and 

 only the Tibetan inscription substituted, and a wheel substituted for the Newar inscrip- 

 tion and symbol of the sword and garland in the centre. On the reverse the eight 

 Buddhist signs (ashta mangala) have been retained and the form of the petals con- 

 taining them exactly copied, and also the three dots between each petal. Only a floral 

 design has been substituted in the central circle for the Newar trident (trisul) and 

 inscription. Even in this floral design it is curious to note that the Newar symbols of 

 the sun and moon, to shew descent from the solar and lunar races, have been 

 retained without any significance. 



The imitation of this coin of Jaya Jagajja is so complete, and there is no other 

 Newar coin to which there is such complete resemblance, that I have little doubt that 

 the Ga-den tang-ka was copied from this particular coin. If this is so, it is interesting ; 

 as it fixes the first mintage of the Ga-den tang-ka subsequent to 1732 A.D. 



The Kong-par-tang-ka. — This tang-ka bears a date (Plates III(A) and III(B), figs. 

 3, 4, 5 and 6). The date is given in the Chinese Cycle of sixty years, wh ch was intro- 

 duced into Tibet in 1026 A.D. The earliest coin of this mintage (figs. 3 and 4) bears the 

 date \%, which means the forty-sixth year of the thirteenth cycle, and therefore corres- 

 ponds to 1792 A.D. The coins bearing this date are not constant either in die, or in 

 size, and, though they are none of them recent, would appear to have been struck at 

 different times. The design on the coin shewn in fig. 4 differs from that in fig. 3, and 

 though these represent the two types of these coins, there are others which follow one 

 or other of these two types with minor variations due to fresh die. It is, therefore, 

 probable that the coin having been first struck in that year the inscription was pre- 

 served without change as in the case of the Ga-den tang-ka. 



Even educated Tibetans do not, as a rule, know what these figures are, and the 

 uneducated, of course, have no idea. One educated Tibetan, whom I once asked 

 about them, said he believed the top figure represented the age of the Dalai Lama 

 at the time, and the lower figure that of the Regent ! 



The only other two dates that I have seen on these coins are \\ (fig. 5), namely, 

 the twenty-fourth year of the fifteenth cycle, corresponding to 1890 A.D., and \% 

 (fig. 6) corresponding to 1891. Some of the latter coins are quite freshly minted, and 

 the die of 1891 has, therefore, remained in use without altering the date, as was 

 doubtless the case with the original die of 1792. This coin is sub-divided (Plates 

 III(A) and III(B), fig. 15). 



The Pa-nying (5JGT&C) "Old Nepalese " tang-ka, is also known as the Dung- 

 tang "spear tangka " or dung-tse (q^Cg') " spear point " from the trident em- 

 blem of the Newar kings, which is minted on the reverse. They were minted to the 



