1884.] V, A. Smitli —Gold Coins of the Im^perial Gupta Dynasty. 185 
B. ; two specimens. 
No. 4 of Tod’s 4tli series ; mon. seems to be 20a ; wt. not stated ; 6bv. 
legend includes certainly Vikrama.’ 
{Trans. R. A. S. I. {1827). PL XII. 
C. ; in ohv. legend . . ‘ .. nara ’ . . legible, so far confirming 
Prinsep’s reading; no mon.; wt. 122'00; obtain¬ 
ed at Benares. Perhaps the true reading is 
best of men’ ; cf. Ghatot Kacha. Mr. 
Carnac also has a coin obtained at Benares with 
. . . . ‘tavasa’ on ohv., and rev. lion to 
right; wt. 120'45. I omitted to note further 
particulars, and the coin is perhaps of the com¬ 
batant Lion type. 
Mr-. Thomas (/. A. S. B. XXIVp. 501, class G; Bev. Catal., class K) 
briefly describes as follows a coin in the Stacy collection, which he 
regards as being “ a cast from a genuine original. Ohv. king to r. 
armed with bow, shooting a lion ; legend 
‘ Knmara Gupta, of might like a lion’s, most prosperous.’ Bev. 
Parvati seated on a lion, her r. hand extends the fillet, the 1., which 
rests upon her knee, holds a flower ; legend 1^=^ ^ Sinha Mahendra 
wt. 126 ; type V. E. XXX, 1.” If this cast represents a genuine coin it 
is a most important document, as proving that both the titles ‘ Sinha 
Mahendra’ and ^ Sinha Vikrama ’ belong to Kumara Gupta. But I 
think it probable that the cast is a forgery.* The combination of titles 
has no parallel in any authentic coin, and the legend has the appearance 
of having been composed to solve the difficulty felt in assigning the 
‘ Sinha Vikrama ’ coins. In the genuine Lion-Trampler coin of Kuma- 
ra’s (P. D. XXX, 8) the rev. legend is ‘ Sri Mahendra Sinha ;’ in the 
cast the word ‘ Sinha ’ is made to precede ^ Mahendra.’ Mr. Thomas, 
in his original catalogue (/. A. S. B. XXIV, 501] and in his Revised 
Catalogue assigns all the ‘ Sinha Vikrama ’ coins to Kumara Gupta, be¬ 
ing apparently led to this conclusion by the dubious Stacy cast. In his 
Records of the Gupta Dynasty {p. 22J he attributes the B. M. unique 
Retreating Lion coin with ‘ Sinha Vikrama ’ legend, (P. B. XXIII, 2d) 
to Samudra Gupta. He does not state any reason for this attribution, 
* In a letter, Written in May 1883, Mr. W. TbeobaM tells me ;—“ There is a 
roaring trade just now doing in forgeries. Just before I left India, two years agoj 
I saw upwards of 33 beautifully executed forgeries of gold coins with one man in 
Hazara, and, what is more curious, I actually saw forged copper coins, but these 
only once in an out-of-the-way village, and the same man had a few forged silver 
Sophytes, one of which I bought; but I have a genuine one also,” 
