32 Notes on Indian Currencies. [no. 1, new series', 
(vol. III. p. 9) talking of the Surat currency the same Author 
says, " in the same way as cowries are made use of in Bengal, 
*' almonds called badams are made use of here," to which the 
Translator in a foot-note adds, " when Ovington was at Surat about 
*' 60 bitter almonds was the current rate of a pice. Thevenot says 
*' 68, and adds, that the almonds that pass for money at Surat come 
*' from Persia and are the fruit of a shrub that grows on the rocks." 
1-j urr- J X „ tPcnnant has dcscrlbcd thc wav in which 
^ ide " Hiadostan, ' p.l51. , 
the cowries are obtained. 
" These shells are collected twice in t'iie month at full and new 
*' moon. It is the business of the women who wade up to their 
" middle to gather them. They are packed up in parcels of 
" 12,000 each, and are the current money among the poor in Ben- 
" gal. Hamilton mistakes the manner of gathering them when 
*' he says — The natives fling into the sea branches of coco trees, 
" to which the shells adhere and are collected every 4 or 5 months. 
" The exchange for them from Bengal is rice, butter and cloth." 
With regard to Akbar being the first to coin silver and gold, 
Elphinstone (p. 428) says, " it has been said that Akbar first coin- 
*' ed silver and gold money. The assertion is inconsistent with all 
" history. If the Hindus had not a coinage in those metals earli- 
" er, they at least adopted it from the Bactrian Greeks about the 
" beginning of the Christian sera." 
Mr. Charles Masson in the Journal^ of the Asiatic Society of 
Bengal for September 1836, treating of certain coins found at 
Beghram, in Cabul, classifies them into five grand divisions. 
1. Groeco-Bactrian. 
2. Indo Scythic or Mithraic. 
3. Ancient Persian, whether Parthian or Sassanian. 
4. Hindu or Brahminical. 
6. Kufic or Mahommedan. 
Thus commencing with the third Century B. C. we have a suc- 
cession of coins varying in their form and superscription accord- 
* Vol. V. p. 537. 
