No. 58. — 1907.] EARLY COPPER COINS. 201 



" Coins of Ancient India."* Describing the coins of Taxila, 

 he says : " Pigs. 6 to 17 are single-die coins, the reverse being 

 quite plain. They present some well-known Buddhist symbols, 

 such as the Chaitiya and the Bodhi tree." Owing to their 

 hopeless state of corrosion, I am unable to make out any of the 

 devices on any of the ten specimens available ; and for the 

 same reason it is difficult to imagine what their original weight 

 may have been. With the exception of two, which are broken, 

 they now weigh as below : — 



31 grains 

 30 



30 grains 

 26 „ 



23 grains j 19 grains 

 22 „ | 17 ;, 



the heaviest being the one from Vessagiri, which differs from 

 the rest in being circular. 



From their company their date may be roughly estimated 

 to be about 500 a.d., for the Roman coins with which they 

 were found at the Buddhist railing and at Selachaitiya are of 

 the fourth and fifth centuries a.d. , and the building in which 

 the Vessagiri specimen was discovered flourished from the 

 fifth to tenth centuries a.d., and perhaps later. 



In style a single-die coin is the natural link between punch- 

 marked and double-die coins. But in this case I think it 

 must have been the result of degeneration, for the circular 

 double-die coins, to be described later, were undoubtedly 

 modelled on the punch-marked eldlings, and must have existed 

 prior to 500 a.d. Ten specimens, all at present available, 

 are too few to establish the type as being undoubtedly 

 Sinhalese. They may come from India. We can only hope 

 for finds of better specimens. 



Circular Double-die Coins. 



In 1884 Mr. H. Parker published in the Journal of the 

 C. B. R. A. S. his interesting paper on archaeological discover- 

 ies at Tissamaharama. Among other coins found he men- 

 tions a roughly circular copper coin bearing Buddhist symbols 

 on either side. This coin was at that time unique ; but fifty 



* " Coins of Ancient India," by Major-General Sir Alexander 

 Cunningham, page 61. 

 H 2 



