140 V. A. Smith —Gold Coins of the Imperial Gupta Dynasty. [ITo. 2, 
Kanerki are, however, found in N”. E. Oudh and Benares, and it is pos¬ 
sible that certain of the Indo-Scyfhian provincial mints may have been 
occupied by the Gupta kings when they shook off the Indo-Scythian 
yoke, and that the ‘ monograms ’ on the Gupta and eastern Indo-Scythian 
coins may indicate mint-cities. Unfortunately no detailed catalogue of 
u Indo-Scythian coins has yet been published, and the statistics of their 
j provenance have not yet been analysed. 
The occurrence of coins together in a hoard raises a presumption 
that they proceeded, if not from a single mint, at least from mints not 
very far distant from each other. Few details as to the components of the 
various hoards of Gupta coins are available, but when such details are 
known, we find very various monograms associated in a single hoard. 
Thus, the 32 described coins of the Bharsar hoard exhibit monograms as 
follows :—^ 
Uo. 8a . I coin of Samudra Gupta ; 6 of Chandra Gupta II; I of 
Kumara Gupta Mahendra; and 2 of Prakasaditya ; 
total 10. 
No. Sa . 2 of Samudra Gupta. 
No. 4c . 3 of Samudra Gupta ; 6 of Skanda Gupta; total 9. 
No. 15. 2 of Chandra Gupta II. 
No. 25. 2 of Kumara Gupta Mahendra. 
No monogram I of Chandra Gupta II; 6 of Kumara Gupta Mahendra; 
total 7. Grand total 32. 
The above considerations seem sufficient to throw doubt on the 
theory that the Gupta (and consequently the Indo-Scythian) mono 
* 
grams are the indications of mint-cities. 
Nor does it seem possible that they should be the marks of mint- 
masters or other official persons, for the same monogram runs through 
several reigns. For example, the monogram No. 3a is found on coins of 
Chandra Gupta I, Samudra Gupta, Chandra Gupta II, and Skanda Gup¬ 
ta, and its use, therefore, continued for at least a hundred years. 
If then these monograms are not the result of blind imitation, nor 
the devices of mint-cities, nor the marks of public functionaries, what 
are they ? It seems to me most probable that (though they may be 
mint-marks) they are religious emblems or symbols of some sort. The 
description of types in the last preceding section will have left no doubt on 
the reader’s mind that religious symbolism and the effigies of deities ap¬ 
pear everywhere on the Gupta gold coins, as they did on their Indo-Scy- 
thian forerunners, and it is reasonable to suppose that the same love for 
religious symbolism dictated the selection of the so-called monograms. 
* For an account of this hoard, see jpost, Sec. V. 
