IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 
169 
abbreviation (wdld), while tbe tbird, retaining the latter 
inscription, bas a rude figure of Hanuman on tbe reverse. 
Tbere can, of course, be no doubt but that the two latter 
coins are issues of Mahomed 'Ali, and I cannot but think 
that the first also should more properly be attributed to 
him, than be assigned, as it is by Sir Walter Elliot, to his 
predecessor Safdar 'Ali Khdn. The g would certainly 
not help us to fix it, as it is the initial of the names of 
both, but whereas we have specimens in copper still re- 
taining the g, and bearing with it the word " WdMjah," we 
do not, as far as I am aware, meet with coins bearing his 
predecessor's name in the same conjunction, and hence I 
think there is a good show of reason for placing it in the 
long reign of Mahomed 'Ali. No notice has, as far as I 
can learn, been hitherto taken of the copper issues of this 
king, though there exists a long series of them, and one of 
considerable interest as showing the tendency of coins in- 
scribed with legends in a foreign language to become debased 
and assimilated to the issues of the surrounding country. 
The copper coins struck in the capital, Arcot, are in three 
sizes and are as well executed as those of the contemporaneous 
Moghals. On one side they bear the word with Hejrah 
date below, and on the other u-/=^ s^r^ (struck at Arcot, 
year of the reign) . Those apparently struck in the outlying 
provinces, however, are of far ruder make, and resemble the 
small Hindu copper issues, while the formation of the letters, 
as well as the form of the coin, varies very considerably. 
One type of these consists of thin flat coins, having on one 
side (which is usually slightly concave) the word in a 
rectangle and on the reverse ''W in a ring of dots ; another 
is a thick coin haA'ing the whole title sW^^j ("Wdlajdh) on 
one side with vV ( Nawdb) below and the date on the other, 
while another of the same type has the iW^^j on one side 
and the s->V on the other, surmounted by the date. A third 
type again has the title written ^ and this at the hands of 
