239 
1895.] E, A. Gait — Note on some Corns of the Koch Kings. 
Laksmi-narayana, 1 came to the throne in 1583 A. D. So the coin was 
minted five years after his accession, and one year later than the coins 
issued by his contemporary, Laksmhnarayana,.the ruler of the Western 
Kingdom. ... .. . 
I now come to the half coins of the Koch Kings, regarding 
which there has been much misconception amongst numismatists. 
Only one such coin is mentioned by Marsden who attributes it, on 
the authority of Tavernier, to a Raja named Maton Shall, whose 
territory is said to be situated “ beyond the first range of mountains 
bordering Hindustan to the north.”,. 
Another specimen is given in Prinsep’s Indian Antiquities, Vol. 
II, page XLV (No. 6), where it is described as a Cachar Coin of 
£?r Gir^a-candra-narayana. . . 
Several specimens of these half coins were procured for me by 
Babu Madhav-candra Bardalai two years ago, and noticed briefly in 
the Proceedings for August 1893 (page 146). When touring in the 
Eastern Duars last January, I found that some varieties of these coins 
are still common and succeeded in getting a few useful specimens from 
the villagers. 
The difficulty which has hitherto been felt in identifying these 
half coins lies in the fact that the legends on them are incomplete,—the 
method of manufacture adopted being apparently to strike a full coin 
and then to make half coins by stamping out the centre. It is thus 
impossible to read the legend on any individual coin without some 
clue, but starting with the assumption that they are coins of the Koch 
Kings and knowing the legends which are usually found on the full 
coins, it is no longer difficult to see that the reading of all the half 
coins is as follows :— 
Obverse.—Cr Cr mat (name of king) -ndrdyanasya Cake (date). 
Reverse.—Cr Cr Civa-carana-kamala-madhukarasya. 
No half coin contains the whole of this legeud, but as the portion 
stamped out is seldom the exact centre of the coin, a comparison 
of one coin with another shows that the above is undoubtedly the 
correct reading of these coins. Unfortunately the names of the kings 
in whose reigns they were minted are nearly always incomplete, and it 
is seldom that more can be read from them than the last two or three 
letters. We can however identify some of them by comparing the 
terminal letters with those of the Koch rulers of the western kingdom, 
1 He is called Raghu-deva in the inscription in the temple of Hayagriva at 
Hajo, which is quoted in the paper mentioned in the last footnote, and which 
bears date Qaka 1505. 
