1899 .] 
Section I.—Goins and Seals. 
17 
Society, Part II for 1848-1850, by C. B. Hillier. I hope that this 
disadvantage under which I am labouring may be accepted as a suffi¬ 
cient excuse for the imperfections of my descriptions of the Chinese 
coins in the collection. 
TVith reference to numismatic evolution, Chinese round coins fall 
into three periods. In the first period, they have no inscriptions what¬ 
ever. In the second period, they have a legend on the obverse, consist¬ 
ing at first of two symbols, placed to the right and left of the central 
hole, and afterwards of four, there being two additional symbols above 
and below the hole : the reverse is blank. In the third period, they 
have inscriptions both on the obverse and reverse sides, generally 
consisting of four symbols on each side, distributed on the four sides 
of the central hole. The first advance to a double-sided inscription 
consisted either in repeating the obverse legend on the reverse, or in 
placing on it one new symbol, in most cases a numeral indicative of the 
value of the coin. There are found occasional anticipations as well as 
survivals ; but roughly speaking, the course of numismatic evolution 
appears to have been as above explained. 24 * This is amply borne out by 
the coins in our collection. 
In poiut of chronological sequence the coins of the collection also 
happen to fall into three distinct periods: ancient coins of the 1st to 
the 3rd centuries A.D., mediaeval coins of the 7th to the 13th centuries, 
mostly of the two dynasties of the T’ang (618-907 A.D.) and the Sung 
(960-1279 A.D.), and modern coins of the 18th and 19th centuries, issues 
of the ruling Manchu dynasty. The circumstance of the two large gaps 
of several centuries each is curious, but perhaps altogether accidental. 
The presence of the numerous coins of the T’ang and Sung dynasties 
is probably accounted for by the fact that during the periods of their 
rule, as shown by the Chinese records, 26 an exceptionally lively inter¬ 
course was kept up between China and Khotan. 
The total number of Chinese coins in the collection is 148. Among 
these there are 43 ancient, 77 mediaeval, and 28 modern coins. All the 
ancient and many of the mediaeval coins were found in the desert 
around Khotan. The modern ones came from Khotan itself. They all 
formed part of M. 2, 3, 4, 6, 9 j most of the ancient ones belong to M. 2. 
24 See British Museum Catalogue, pp. xxvii and 319. Examples of repetition 
are ibidem , Nos. 1727-1731, 1786-1790, 1877, 1880. Examples of the addition of 
numerals are Nos. 1767-1778, 1807-1814, of other symbols, Nos. 1782, 1815, 1816, 
1818, 1820, 429 - 436 . Exceptional anticipations of a double-sided legend are Nos. 
1752, 1753. Examples of survivals of a two-symbol legend are Nos. 426 - 438 , 
1852-1855. 
86 See Abel Remusat’s Histoire de la Ville de Khotan, pp. 67 ff. 
J. i. 7 
