224: Numismatic Gleanings. [no. 6, new series, 



The coins described in this paper are for the most part stamped 

 Of Buddhist emblems peculiar to the worship of Buddha. 



coins - They have therefore been classed generally as Bud- 



dhist coins, and these again have been divided into 'saldka or punch- 

 coins* and die-coin?. 



India as well as in Siam, China, Japan, and great part of Afiica and the 

 radical character orVey in the Chinese words for " silver," "money," 

 " riches," " precious," " expense," &c, ispoei or " shell." The export of 

 cowries has always formed a principal article of trade from the Maldive 

 Islands and the east coast of Africa. Nails and bars of metal have also 

 been made to serve the same end. Tavernier found pieces of twisted 

 wire called laris, [from the province of Lar in Persia] in general use as 

 money, on the Malabar coast. Thunberg saw them likewise in cir- 

 culation in Ceylon, and Knox describes a similar kind [p. 197,] " which 

 all people by the king's permission, may and do make : the shape is like a 

 fish hook, they stamp what mark or impression on it they please." These 

 seem to resemble the Celtic rings found in Britain and the oboli of the 

 Greeks, which were nothing more than kabob-skewers— o/3eXo/,— a hand- 

 ful of which or about six, made a drachma from §f>a.Treiv ** to grasp with 

 the hand." 



The knife and tile money of the Chinese, in the form of a scimitar or of 

 • a plummet, described by Du Halde [II. 1€6 and 168 &c.,] and by Hager 

 [pp, 35 and 41,] was of a similar but more elaborate description and the 

 gold kopang of Japan, still in use, is simply an oblong plate of gold with 

 the angles rounded off. 



In the Manikyala Tope, General Ventura found specimens of shell- 

 money, i. e. of the cowry, (J. A. S. B. Vol. III. PI. XXI. /. 17,) together 

 with the spherical flattened ingot (lb. PI. XXII./. 25,) Indo-Scythian and 

 Sassanian coins, all of which had been deposited in the mound at the same 

 time. In another tope opened by General Court, Roman denarii of An- 

 tony and Julius Caesar and coins of some Roman families were found asso- 

 ciated with Indo Scythic pieces of Kadphises. 



In Abyssinia pieces of rock salt serve for money. Dr. Barth found stripes 

 of cotton catted farda and shirts called dora employed for the same purpose 

 in Bornou. 



* Jas. Prinsep calls them ch'hdp or " stamp" coins, /. A. S. B. III. 44, 

 Col. Stacy chiingahs, lb. p, 433, see too the same Journal I. 394, IV. 621, 

 629. 



