560 DESCRIPTION OF SELECT COINS. 



such publications not being procurable in this Country. The chief means 

 of instruction and comparison have therefore been defective, and the guid- 

 ance of those scholars to whom the study of Coins and Medals is familiar, 

 has been equally unavailable. Any attempt to elucidate the ancient cur- 

 rencies of India, must consequently be conducted under peculiar disadvan- 

 tages, and the consciousness of this has no doubt deterred collectors and 

 antiquarians from attempting to give any description of their cabinets to 

 the public. 



The Coins found in India, either purchased in the Bazars or dug up at 

 different places, have been of various descriptions. The Coins of the 

 Arsakian and Sassanian Princes are occasionally met with, and Roman 

 Coins are not at all uncommon. The Coins of the Mohammedan Kings of the 

 several principalities, founded by the Musselmans, constitute a third and 

 extensive division, whilst the fourth, the rarest and least familiar, are 

 either of comparatively recent date and known Hindu origin, or are 

 apparently of more remote antiquity, and may be conjectured to be the 

 Coins either of early Hindu Princes, or of foreign Sovereigns ruling over 

 territories in Hindustan. The two first classes need no particular illus- 

 tration at present, and the third has occasionally found a place in publi- 

 cations on Oriental Coins. The last has recently attracted some notice in 

 Europe, from the interesting specimens given by Lieutenant-Colonel Tod, 

 in the 1st Volume of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, with 

 his remarks, and the further observations of Augustus Schlegel in the 

 Indische Bibliothek, which have added another Sovereign to the list of 

 Kings of Bactria, and thrown some new light upon the history of the 

 people, by whom the Hadrian kingdom was overthrown. 



The perusal of these papers suggested to me an examination of the 

 Cabinet of the Society, in order to ascertain, if any of the pieces it con- 

 tains, were likely to confirm or extend the discoveries made in Europe. 



