1884.] V. A. Smith —Gold Coins of the Imj)er{al Gupta Dynasty. 145 
grains. Why Kumara Gupta slionld have reverted to this standard for 
his coinage is at present an unsolved problem. Skanda Gupta’s coinage 
occurs in two types only, the Archer and the King and Queen. The 
heaviest Archer coin weighs 132’5, and the average weight of 9 coins of 
this type is 129'21. The King and Queen type is known from two 
specimens only, and but one of these has been weighed; its weight is 
128’8. These can, therefore, be no doubt, that, as has already been 
observed, the coinage of Skanda Gupta conforms to the same standard 
as the Wheel variety of the Archer type of Chandra Gupta II. 
The investigation has thus established the remarkable fact that the 
undisputed coins of the imperial Gupta Dynasty were struck according 
to at least three distinct standards of weight, of approximately 125, 130, 
and 134-5 grains respectively. 
When we turn to the later coins included in the Supplement to my Cata¬ 
logue another and more striking change in the weight standard presents 
itself. These coins are all, except the Prakasaditya coins, of the Archer 
type, with reverse device of a goddess (Lakshmi probably) seated on a 
lotus-flower. The execution is rude, and the metal sometimes debased. 
Of the coins bearing the name of Chandra, the weights of three are 
known, the average being 145'66, and the highest 148. The correspond¬ 
ing figures for 4 coins inscribed with the name Kumara, or its first 
syllable, are 146*3 and 148*7. The only gold coin of Skanda Gupta 
Kramaditya which has been tested, weighs 141*4. The coins of Kara 
Gupta Baladitya average 145*66, with a maximum of 148*7, and the Lion 
and Horseman coins of Prakasaditya show an average of 145*6 and a 
maximum of 146*2. 
These figures demonstrate that all these coins were struck according 
to one standard, and that quite different from any of the standards 
adopted for the undisputed mintages of the imperial Gupta sovereigns. 
What was this standard ? It seems to me that it was the ancient Hindu 
weight and coin, the suvarna, or golden Kdrsha of 80 ratis. 
General Cunningham finds it “for all practical purposes extremely 
convenient and sufficiently accurate to assume the value of the rati at 
1*75 English grain, which is the value that has already been adopted by 
Mr. Thomas on the evidence of the coins themselves.” If this value for 
the rati be accepted the weight of the sumrna must be fixed at 140 
grains, and the coins now under consideration, whatever they may be, 
cannot be intended for suvarnas. 
General Cunningham observes that “no one to my knowledge has 
seen a suvarna f and in the sense that no one has yet discovered an an¬ 
cient Hindu pre-Alexandrine coin of that denomination, the observation 
is accurate ; but I venture to submit that the coins of Kara Gupta and 
