228 Numismatic Gleanings. [no. 6, new series, 



with the aboriginal race whose places of sepulture are scattered 

 over every part of Southern India. And about four years earlier 

 a pot full of the same pieces was dug up at Pennar, also in the 

 Coimbatore province, among which was found a silver denarius of 

 Augustus, which proves that they were current at the commence- 

 ment of the Christian sera. 



A single example (fig. 5J) of the same kind of money in cop- 

 per was found among a quantity of Buddhist coins from Oojain. 

 This is the only example we have met with of a true punch coin 

 in baser metal, but smooth and worn pieces of copper of similar 

 shape and appearance are by no means rare. 



Description of The coins figured in Plates VII and VIII re- 



present the oldest descriptions of Hindu money 

 extant. 



Figures 1 to 5 are of the simplest kind, spherical, square or ob- 

 long pieces of metal with hardly the vestige of a device. 



Fig. 1. A silver piece of somewhat peculiar form, from the an- 

 cient 'site near Behat in the Ganga-Jamna Doab discovered by Cap- 

 tain Cautley in 1834, when excavating the Ganges canal.* It 

 weighs grains 26-85. 



Fig. 2. A flat quadrangular piece of copper with merely the 

 trace of a mark, from Mahamallaipur or the Seven Pagodas. Others 

 of the same shape and appearance are perfectly smooth. The 

 weight differs considerably, the heaviest of six was grains 40*75, 

 the lightest, grains 26*35. 



Fig. 3. A spherical ingot of copper very slightly flattened, ex- 

 hibiting four indistinct indentations : weight grains 31 •325. 



Fig. 4. A gold piece very similar to the last but having less of 

 the spherical form. It is from the cabinet of Lieutenant H. P. 

 Hawkee, 12th M. N. I. and weighs grains 51*05. . 



Fig. 5. One of three coins of the same description as Figs. 

 3 and 4. They were procured in the Soonda division of Canara, 

 and weigh from grains 52*05 to 52.3, the average being 52*2. The 

 indented marks (although) somewhat more elaborate than in the 



* Journal Asiatic Society Bengal, Vol. III. pp. 43, 221. 



