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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XIX. 



There must be coins that would fall within the scope of this 

 Paper in the hands of collectors. Where coins are of little 

 intrinsic beauty or value they are only of interest because they 

 are links ready to be forged into a chain of historic evidence ; 

 and it is a pity when this interest is minimized by their being 

 unknown to any but their owners. 



Punch-marked Coins. 



Small, square, oblong, oval, or round discs of copper, 

 generally bearing no device of any kind, but occasionally 

 showing light traces of punch-marks, are sometimes found. 

 In all cases that have come before me these are merely the 

 copper cores of silvered punch-marked coins. They are found 

 in all stages of peeling, from those in which the copper is only 

 just exposed to those in which all traces of the silver coating 

 have disappeared. 



Copper eldlings have been found in India, and in all proba- 

 bility existed in Ceylon ; but so far as I know none have been 

 yet discovered in this Island. 



These are more properly classed with the silver eldlings, 

 but are mentioned here as they might easily be mistaken, when 

 thoroughly worn, for copper coins pure and simple. 



Single-die Coins. 



During the excavation of the ruin enclosed by the Buddhist 

 railing, close to Abhayagiri Dagaba in Anuradhapura, eight 

 small, roughly square, copper coins were found in company 

 with a few Roman coins of the fourth or fifth century a.d. 



At Selachaitiya Dagaba another coin of the same type was 

 found, also with similar Roman coins, and during the excava- 

 tion of the northern end of Vessagiri a tenth specimen was 

 unearthed, which possesses enough of its character in common 

 with the others to be included in the same class. For lack of 

 another name I have described these as single-die coins. 



All of these coins are more or less deeply concave on one side, 

 and either flat or slightly convex on the other. 



The natural inference is that they were struck with a die 

 on one side, the other being left plain. Coins of this style 

 have already been described by General Cunningham in his 



