IN SOTTTHEEN INDIA. 
37 
si^ies in copper and two in silver, their respective weights 
being approximately 57 i and 32| grains in the former and 
45 and 221 grains in the latter metal. As far back as 1668, 
issues~of English silver money were struck in Bombay. In 
the latter part of the last and early part of the present 
century, English medals were coined following the Maho- 
medan and Hindu systems. Those current in the south 
consisted firstly of the single star and other pagodas in the 
Hindu style (weighing from 52 to 52 1 grains), and subse- 
quently of a more modern type of coin in double ^ and single 
pagodas, weighing 91 and 45| grains, respectively, in gold, 
while the silver series of half and quarter pagodas weighed 
325 and 162| grains and the silver fanam 29. By royal 
proclamation of the 7th January 1818, the pagoda series 
gave way, and the rupee of 180 grains (350 to 100 pagodas) 
became the current coin of the country, and has so continued 
ever since to the sorrow of many a father with a family in 
the old country. 
To turn now to the coins that are most commonly met 
with in the southern districts of the peninsula, we find that 
the earliest represented are evidently of a Buddhist origin, 
and these are found from end to end of India, and are by 
no means uncommon in the Island of Ceylon. Through 
them we trace the early history of coining. First we have 
small pieces of metal, some rectangular, some circular and 
some apparently slices cut from a bar of metal. These we 
^ find followed by irregular flat pieces of silver 
and copper, at first utterly devoid of any 
mark, but later bearing the impression of some device or 
devices punched upon them, and hence known as the " punch- 
marked " Buddhist type. Though by no means common, 
they are met with in silver, gold and copper, the first being by 
far the commonest. An examination of a few of these coins 
' Journal As. Soc, Beng., Vol. LII, Part I, No. 24. 
