1899 .] 
Section I.—Corns and Seals. 
25 
I suppose, those coins which preserve the Greek fashion of arranging 
the legends, and show the title on the right in Greek, and the name on 
the left in Bactrian, may be considered to be older than those which 
show the mixed legends in the reversed position, i.e ., the name in Greek 
on the left, and a Bactrian legend on the right, the latter also being 
a name. Accordingly the bilingual coins of the present series may be 
referred to about 130 B.C. It would also seem, if Dr. Gardner’s theory 
of the change of standard is correct (see Brit. Mus. Cat., Introd., 
pp. lxvii, lxviii), that these coins are didrachms of the Persian standard 
(full weight 160-170 grains), such as began to be minted in Heliocles’ 
reign. 
Seeing that the Bactrian legend 4,0 on our coins takes the place of the 
Greek name, it seems reasonable to assume that, like the latter, it runs 
parallel to the Greek title and must be read from the outside of the 
coin. This assumption is certainly supported by the general appearance 
of the characters, which, after the Semitic fashion must be read from 
the right to the left. They are shown in the subjoined woodcut. 
No. 9. 
Plate I, No. 2. W. 155 grs. 
do. No. 3. W. 148 grs. 
do. No. 4. W. 145 grs. 
The third, fourth and fifth letters of No 1 legend have a distinct 
resemblance to the Kharosthi letters ja , a and ha ; and at first I was 
disposed to take the second letter as a crude Kharosthi ra , and to read 
the whole as a mutilation of (ati)raja Aha(thuhleyasa). But the 
In order to prevent any misunderstanding I may explain that I use the term 
Bactrian in the definite sense of referring to Bactria proper, and the immediately 
adjacent northern provinces of what was once the Bactrian Kingdom. What I 
wish to suggest (the suggestion only to be taken for what it may be worth) is that 
corresponding to the modified Aramaean script • current to the South of the Pnro- 
pamisus and known as Kharosthi, there may have been another modified and allied 
Aramaean script current to the north of that range, of which the letters on the 
coins in question may be witnesses. This suggestion refers only to the script 
whether the language hidden in the legends of the coins was a species of old 
Turki or old Iranian is a point on which I hazard no opinion. For a similar 
suggestion, if I understand it rightly, see Isaac Taylor’s The Alphabet, Vol II, 
pp. 232, 233. 
J. i. 8 
