oct.*— dec. 1856.] Notes on Indian Currencies, 27 



Also, in page 51 vol. II. writing of Sadras, he says, " That this 

 " was a place of commerce I little doubt, and probably frequented 

 " by the Romans. The grounds of my conjecture are that a pot of 

 " gold and silver coins'* has been found here by a Ryot, with cha- 

 <c racters which neither Hindoos nor Mahomedans could explain. 

 " They probably must be Roman. We know that their trade ex- 

 " tended even farther than the Coromandel Coast, and I have also 

 " been informed that Roman coins have been seen in the possession 

 " of Brahmins, the only people of curiosity in all these extensive 

 " regions and such coins must have been found within their 

 " neighbourhood." 



In spite, then, of those who would have us believe that Akbar 

 was the first to coin gold and silver money, it is evident that 

 the precious metals have been known to the Hindoos from a 

 very remote sera, certainly since the Grcecian invasion, and being 

 eminently qualified for a circulating medium, became centuries ago, 

 as Turgot has observed, " universal money not in consequence of 

 " any arbitrary agreement among men, or of the intervention of 

 " any law, but by the nature and force of things," throughout the 

 peninsula of India as well as every where else, but at what pre- 

 cise period remains unknown. That the choice fell upon gold and 

 silver arose probably from their being obtainable in the country, 

 from their possessing the requisite qualifications of durability and 

 divisibility, from their great intrinsic value, and from their having 

 been extensively used for personal ornaments, the former metal in 

 particular, because more portable and in the absence of banks and 

 such like places of deposit more suitable for hoarding. The prac- 

 tice of hoarding jewels and gold is very common now in the inte- 

 rior, probably as much so as it ever was, and a good modern in- 

 stance of it is given by Schomberg in his account of Runjeet Sing 

 and his search after his chief Moonshee's treasures. The extract is 

 subjoined. " A tomb was erected in the interior of the Moonshee's 

 " house, ostensibly to honor his father's memory, but in reality to 

 " conceal his treasures, which when it was opened was found to 

 " contain not a smouldering skeleton but solid gold, There arc 



* Asiatic Researches I. 158. 



