viii Dr. Hoernle— Antiquities from Central Asia. [Extra No. 1, 
them. 8 Little over the intrinsic value of the gold was, however, asked 
for the coin itself. The latter fact seemed to lend added interest to the 
scientific character of the find, since it was clear that if the coin had 
been a spurious one, manufactured for sale as an antiquity, a much 
higher price would have been demanded.” According to Munshi 
Ahmad Din, “ two other gold coins, seemingly of a similar description, 
were presented by the Russian Consul-General at Kashghar to H. I. M. 
the Tsar.” Captain Godfrey’s gold coin is shown on Plate I, fig. 1. 
Being but imperfectly supplied with reference-books, I have not 
been able to fully identify it; but it appears to be a Byzantine coin, 
perhaps of the Emperor Constantinus V, Copronymous, who died in 
795 A.D. 
With the exception of the antiquities, composing the contribution 
G. 4, all the others were procured from 
Localities and Eastern (or Chinese) Turkestan. The antiqui- 
Cireumstances of the ties G. 4 (coins and seals) come from Samar- 
Finds. kand, Tashkand, and other places of Western 
Turkestan. The rest of the antiquities come 
from the neighbourhood of two places, Kuchar and Khotan, in 
Eastern Turkestan. Their find-spots are shown in red on the accompany¬ 
ing Map. The town of Kuchar lies to the North, and Khotan to the 
South of the Great Sandy Desert, which occupies nearly the whole of 
the space intervening between the Tian Shan Mountains in the North 
and Kuen Luen Range in the South. The southern portion of this 
great desert which lies immediately North of Khotan, bears the name 
of Takla Makan, and most of the find-places are situated within the 
limits of this portion of the sandy desert. In fact, there are only two 
places near Kuchar, from which, any antiquities in the British collec¬ 
tion have been procured. These are a mound and a “tower” (i.e., a stupa), 
situated 1 mile and 16 miles respectively to the west of that town. In 
the stupa the Bower and Weber Manuscripts were found. In the same 
place were also found some of the Macartney Manuscripts (viz., M. 1, 
Set I a and b). The fragments, composing the Godfrey Manuscripts 
(G. 1), as well as some fragments, included in M. 3 and T. 1, are also said 
to have been found near Kuchar, but the exact place of their discovery 
is not known. As all these fragments are strikingly alike with respect 
to paper, writing and general appearance, it is probable that they were 
all found at the same time and in the same place. On this point the 
only information available is that given by Captain Godfrey (in a private 
letter to myself; see my Report in the Journal of the Asiatic Society 
8 Possibly the seals here mentioned are identical with the pieces of yellow 
crystal referred to in Mr. Macartney’s Note quoted below (p. xxxii). 
