54 
HINTS TO COIN-COLLECTORS 
the world. Struck at Pattan (Seringapatam) in the year 
of the Hijrah 1200." The smaller coins corresponding to 
this series are known as the " Bakri," struck in the sixth 
year of his reign (and so called possihly after Mahomed 
Bdker, the Fourth Khalif ) the " Jasri " or two anna piece 
struck in the eleventh year, the one anna bearing the word 
" Kazmi " struck in the twelfth and a | anna, also in silver, 
with the word " Kizri" impressed thereon. In all these coins 
the milling is different to that of any other coins I know ; 
the lines instead of running straight across, as usually in 
milled coins, are angular, the angles pointing along the 
circumference, a feature which renders the detections of 
many forgeries at once apparent. 
(The pagodas and fanams struck by him and the states 
dependent on Mysore have been so recently and so fully 
treated on in the two papers to which I have alluded above 
that they require no notice here.) 
During Tipu's reign a very large number of copper coins 
were in circulation, and these are still common in every 
bazaar in the province. As a rule they bear the elephant 
on the obverse and on the reverse the mint town. Above the 
elephant in some instances he places the date, sometimes 
reckoned by the Hijrah era, at others following his own 
patent system. Others again he inscribed with the name of 
a planet, usually that of Jupiter (Mushta) over the larger 
and of Venus (Z'hera) over the smaller, while others bear 
only the word " akhtur " (star). Another series, again, are 
distinguished by the addition over the elephant of one of 
the three first letters of the Persian alphabet. Hawkes, in 
his invaluable little pamphlet on the coins of Mysore (pub- 
lished in 1857), entered most exhaustively into the copper 
issues of Tipu, but unfortunately his useful little book 
is now out of print and no longer procurable, though an 
exhaustive catalogue of the coins in the Madi-as Central 
Museum, now in the press, go far to supply its place. 
