352 
E. Thomas —The Initial Coinage of Bengal. — Ft. II. [No. 4, 
as opposed to the Mu’izzi faction of the nobles of Hindustan, who had 
already tried conclusions with each other, to the disadvantage of the latter. 
No. 2. Gold. Weight, 706 grains. JJnigue. Gaur , a.h. 616. # 
Obyeese. 
KeVEESE. 
p h &+J ( -1-— 
Horseman at the charge. 
In the field— 
tj** — y| 
Margin —- 
M 
<xlJi 
f J —H 
This unique gold coin of the period, put forth under Muslim auspices, 
is of more than usual value in confirming the locality of the mint of its 
counterparts in silver, which are deficient in any geographical record ; 
indeed, none of tl\e Bengal coins, which form the bulk of the trouvaille 
to which the present notice is devoted, bear any indication of the site of 
which they were struck. Found, however, in company with so many clearly 
local pieces, there would have been little hesitation in assigning them to the 
southern division of the new Muhammadan empire; hut the distinct 
announcement of the place of issue of the gold piece is of importance, not 
only in fixing definitively the then head-quarters, hut in presenting us with 
the name of Gaur,% regarding the use of which, at this epoch, there was 
* For a figure of the coin, vide Chronicles of the Pathan Kings, p. 78. 
f Qilij Arsalan, the Saljuq of Anatolia (a.h. 656), uses this title of 
(Frsehn, p. 156). The three sons of Kai Khusrau (a.h. 647) employ the term in the plural 
* 
X I need have no hesitation in admitting that on the first examination of this piece,, 
as an isolated specimen of a hitherto unknown mintage, I was disposed, in the absence of 
any dot either above or below the line of writing, to adopt the alternative reading of 
instead of jyq, while confessing a preference for the latter transcription, on account of the 
need of the preposition ^ (Chronicles of the Pathan Kings, p. 79); hut, at the time, 1 
was unprepared to expect that Altamsh’s sway had extended to the lower provinces, which 
were avowedly in independent charge of the Kliilji successors of Muhammad Bakhtyar. 
This difficulty is now curiously explained by the concurrent silver pieces, and the supposi¬ 
tion that the local chieftain found it expedient to profess allegiance, nominal or real, to 
the preponderating influence of the master of Hindustan. In like manner, the recently 
discovered silver coins have supplied a clue to the more satisfactory decipherment of the 
marginal legend, and the explanation of other minor imperfections in the definition of the 
exotic characters of the gold coin, which it is useless to follow in detail. 
