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." 



- - . - _. , „ Pennant has described the way in which 



\ ide " Hmdostan, p.lol. J 



the cowries are obtained. 



" These shells are collected twice in the 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 aie 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. Grceco-Bactrian. 



2. Indo Scythic or Mithraic. 



3. Ancient Persian, whether Parthian or Sassanian. 



4. Hindu or Brahminical. 



5. 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. 



