184 W. Tlieobald — on some of the symbols found on the [No. 3, 
Major General Sir Alexander Cnnninghara who lias irretragably esta- 
blished this conclusion in his essay on the coins of Alexander’s successors, 
adduces several arguments which may hero be briefly recapitulated. 
First, there is the historical record of Quintus Ourtius, who describes 
the Raja of Taxila (the modern Shahdhori, 20 miles north-west from 
Rawal Pindi) as offering Alexander 80 talents of coined silver signati 
argenti).” Now what other, except these punch-marked coins could 
these pieces of coined silver have been ? Again, the name by which 
these coins are spoken of in the Buddhist sutms, about 200 B. C. was 
‘purana’, which simply signifies ‘ old ’, whence the General argues that 
the word ‘ old ’ as applied to the indigenous ‘ karsha ’, was used to 
distinguish it from the new and more recent issues of the Greeks. 
Then again a mere comparison of the two classes of coins almost of 
itself suflices to refute the idea of the Indian coins being derived from 
the Greek. The Greek coins present us with a portrait of the king, 
with his name and titles in two languages together with a great number 
and variety of monograms indicating, in many instances where they 
have been deciphered by the ingenuity and perseverance of General 
Cunningham and others, the names of the mint cities where the coins 
were struck, and it is our ignorance of the geographical names of the 
period that probably has prevented tlie whole of them receiving their pro- 
per attribution ; but with the indigenous coins it is far otherwise, as they 
display neither king’s head, name, titles or monograms of any descrip- 
tion. In place of these last we find a great variety of symbols some 
distinctly Sivite, others Buddhist, others planetary, others relating to 
Aryan mythology and all, or the majority at least devoted to some esoteric 
allusion. It is true that General Cunningham considers that many of 
these symbols, though not monograms in a strict sense, are nevertheless 
marks which indicate the mints where the coins were struck or the 
tribes among whom they were current, and this contention in no wise 
invalidates the supposition contended for by me either that the majority 
of them possess an esoteric meaning or have originated in other lands at 
a period anterior to their adoption for the purpose they fulfil on the 
coins in Hindustan. 
On but one rare type of copper coin of Agathokles (Num. Chron. 
N. S. Vol. VIII, PI. X, f. 6), do we find symbols (a tree and 'stupa') 
identical with those seen on the punch-marked or indigenous coins and 
in this case, from its rarity and the absence thereon of a Greek inscrip- 
tion, we are fairly justified in regarding it as an experimental issue in 
imitation of the local type of coins, which was soon abandoned and 
never repeated. The only point of similarity, a rectangular shape, is 
wholly unknown to Greek coins proper, and occurs on the G i-Eeco-Buctrian 
