34 
HINTS TO COIN-COLLECTORS 
pots of the goldsmith and coppersmith, are claiming their 
victims, while the cabinet of our Central Museum is but 
rarely blessed with a fresh issue, should urge each flagging 
collector to fresh exertions. 
It is not, however, intended in the present paper to go 
deeply into any type of Southern Indian coins, but rather 
in a short space to give a few hints to the tyro, who is just 
commencing this most fascinating study ; to help him in the 
identification of the commoner issues he is likely to meet with 
in this part of the continent ; and in the hope that this may 
be followed by other papers going more deeply into the coins 
of the various dynasties, which men of greater experience, 
such as Mr. Scott of Madiira, or the Eev. James E. Tracy 
of Tirumangalam, could easily supply. 
Many, doubtless, are deterred at the outset, by the diffi- 
culty of identification, which presents itself with their first 
*' find." As I have already said, most of the issues of this 
part of the country boast no inscription to guide us ; but for 
all that, there are not wanting distinguishing badges, which 
can in very many, if not in most, instances help us to 
assign them fairly approximately. It is, then, with a view 
to pointing out the most prominent of these to the tp-o, and 
thus enlisting fresh recruits in the slowly-increasing ranks of 
coin-students in Southern India, that this paper appears. In 
Calcutta, the journal of the A.S.B., in almost every issue 
publishes fresh coins that have come to light, whereas here 
in Madras ^ nothing of the kind has been done, since Sir 
Walter Elliot's " Numismatic Gleanings " appeared in the 
pages of this journal for 1858. What little literature has 
been already published on the subject has either become so 
scarce as to command ^ a proliibitive price or, like Ha-^\ kes' 
' Sir Walter Elliot's contribution to the " Niimisniata Orientalia " had 
not been received when this paper was commenced. 
- A copy oi Princep's '' Indian Autiijuities " now fetches as much as 
£10 10s. 
