The Pot of Foliage" (Fig. 3) occurs in most of the coins as an oval boss with six dots over it. The concave curve of the mouth of the ghara is, however, clearly seen on some of the coins, e.g. Nos. 19, 20, 21, which leaves no doubt as to its significance.

The interlaced triangles (Fig. 4) is a mark which I have not seen on other coins.

It is not clear what object is intended to be represented in Figs. 18A., 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 30, 31, 38, 40, 43, 46, 49 and 50; and reverse marks 62, 65, 71, 73, 75, 76 and 80.

Of the animals on the present coins, the elephant frequently occurs on silver puranas, the humped bull less frequently, the bull's or cow's head with garland is, I believe, as already noted, Theobald's Fig. 3. But I am not aware that the lion has been found on the silver puranas which have hitherto been described, though it is found on subsequent copper coinages of Taxila. 1 If, therefore, Fig. 7 is a lion, the presence of that animal on the present coins is very interesting.

I have taken the animal (Fig. 7) to be a lion, rather than a tiger, on account of the comparatively large size of the head. There is, however, no attempt to indicate the mane, as is done in the examples of that animal on later Indian coins, and it may, consequently, be intended for a tiger. In either case I am not aware of either lion or tiger occurring on other silver punchmarked coins.

28. Symbol 27 with three intervening bills. Fig. 92.

In this variant the "chitras" are separated by three intervening bills, and the antiquity of this form of the symbol is proved by this identical pattern being found in Troy, only the balls and “ arrows (as Schlieman calls them) are ranged on the terracotta whorls in fours instead of threes (Schlieman's Troy, Plate XLIII, fig. 458).

CA. I., Plate III.

39

33. Symbol 27 with three owl heads. Fig. 95.

In this form, the bills " are replaced by a Symbol which may bo described as the Greek letter" phi" with the upper projecting limb cut off. It is essentially the same as occurs on symbol 20 and is also found on Trojan pottery and has been designated "owl's head" (Schlieman's Troy, page 313. fig. 227). J.A.S.B., Part 1, 1900, Plate IX, figures 91-98, 100, 102, 101, 103; and

Pages 215-217.

The snake, in the form of the letter S, (Fg. 35) and with an egg (Figs. 28 and 44), the tortoise (Fig. 36), the humped bull, of a different design to Fig. 6, are amongst the marks illustrated by Theobald.

Cunningham suggested that the marks on the purānas might be punning allusions to the names of the rulers or places, e.g. a bull or a cow (Sk. Vatsa=Vacca) a very common symbol on the coins of Kosambi, the capital of the Vatsas; or that another explanation was possible or even probable that they were shroff marks, and that the animals found on those coins might be adopted by the shroffs as indicating their names.2

1

The shroff theory, as already noted, cannot stand as regards the obverse marks. The animals on purānas may be the lakshanas or emblems of the sanghas, or be the ankas cf particular rulers or governing bodies; for instance the Mahabharata says that the standard of the Brihatratha dynasty of Magadha which came to an end about 727 B.C. bore a bull on it. They may also indicate the names of places.

If the early punch-marked coinage was the outcome of the Dravidian civilization, there may, possibly, be a connection between the animals adopted as lakshanas and the totems of clans.

The marks on the reverse of the present coins, as is invariably found in punch-marked coins, are of an entirely different type to those on the obverse, and are less deeply punched. And when they represent the same objects they are smaller than the similar obverse mark.

Only three obverse marks of the same size occur on the reverse, viz. Fig. 16, which occurs on the obverse of coins 4, 36 and 87 and on the reverse of coins 26, 41, 74 and 79; Fig. 18 which occurs on the obverse of one coin only, No. 43, and on the reverse of coin No. 20; and Fig. 24 which occurs on the obverse of coin 56 and on the reverse of coin 103. Except the above,

1C.A.I., pp. 50-57.

2" The old money changers might have had symbols referring to their own names, thus: the "Sun" for Surya Das; a "Snake" for Naga Sen; and an "Elephant" for Gaj Singh. Bir Deo might have had a "Soldier," Gopal a Bull, and Khajur Vaima, a Palm tree (Khajur)." C.A.I., p. 58.

where the same marks occur on the reverse as on the obverse, they are either somewhat different in design, and even where they are the same in design are smaller. Thus the interlaced triangles on the reverse of coin 105 is smaller than the obverse mark Fig. 4; the bull's or cow's head with garland (Fig. 77) is about half the size of the similar mark (Fig. 8) on the obverse; also Fig. 66, snake in shape of the letter S, is much smaller than the somewhat similar mark on the obverse (Fig. 35); and the phallus (Fig. 59) is only half the size of the similar ma.k (Fig. 5) on the obverse.

Coin 103 is peculiar. The marks on the reverse of this con are full size and appear to be all of the nature of obverse marks and are deeply punched into the coin in the manner of marks on the obverse. There are eleven marks on it. They are punch-. ed indiscriminately over each other. Only one mark, the ninepetalled flower, is intact. A possible suggestion might be that the reverse of this coin may have been used as a test for trying various obverse punches.

The marks on the obverse of this coin, on the other hand, are more lightly punched than those on the reverse.

The remaining reverse marks, as will be seen from Figs. 58 to 81, are entirely distinct and even where they apparently represent the same objects, e.g. Figs 68, 69 and 79, which appear to be intended for the sun, they are quite distinct from the sun mark (Fig. 2) on the obverse.

Professor Rapson refers to the injunction of Manu, VIII, 403, that "All weights and measures must be duly marked, and once in six months let him (i.e. the nṛipa, the prince) re-examine them," and he thinks that coins were included in this injunc-. tion, and that the marks on the reverse are perhaps the marks affixed by the "prince," the governor of the district, or other official included in the term nṛipa, at the time of periodical testing of the currency. He therefore considers that "the merchants or money-changers to whom we have attributed the obverse punch-mak, had simply to submit their coins to the chief authority in the district, who rejected such as were

deficient in weight or quality of metal, and sanctioned such as were approved by marking them with his official stamp, which may perhaps be identified with the solitary punch-mark so often found in the centre of the reverse. The occasional occurrence of more than one of these reverse punch-marks on a coin is naturally explained by supposing the coin to have passed current in more than one district, and consequently to have been officially tested more than once."1

The theory that the marks on the obverse were affixed by the merchants or money-changers through whose hands the coins happened to pass, cannot, however, be maintained in view of the occurrence of certain constant groups of those marks on a number of coins.

The theory that the reverse marks were the official stamp of the local authority and indicated that the coin had been tested and sanctioned for currency within that area appears, as a general statement, to be subject to equally material objections. If this were generally the case, the official test and currency mark would be expected to be found on all coins that had been in circulation, or, at any rate, on the very great majority of them, and there would also be far greater uniformity amongst the reverse marks, which were affixed on all coins current within a given area, than amongst obverse marks which according to the above theory were affixed by merchants or money-changers through whose hands the coins passed.

Neither of these conditions, however, is found to exist in the case of the old silver punch-marked coins that have hitherto been brought to light. If we exclude the coins of Taxila and the Peshawar find, the majority of which bear the "Taxila mark," which has hitherto been considered to be a mint mark, on the reverse, and the coins found at Eran, which would appear to be of later date, punch marks do not occur on the reverse of all the old silver purānas, and when they do oocur, there is no general uniformity amongst the reverse marks on the coins found in the same locality.

(

1 J. R. A S, 1895, page 874.

Reverse marks are found on only 38 of the present coins, and there is no uniformity amongst them. Only two marks (Fig. 59 and obverse Fig. 16) occurs on four coins, one mark (Fig. 62) on three coins, one mark (Fig. 66) occurs twice, and the others are marks which occur only once. A description of the marks will be found in Table III.

That there is no general uniformity amongst the reverse marks is also the case in the coins found at Paila. Mr. Campbell's Treasure Trove Report, and his list of marks, which he has kindly let me see, show that while, as already noted, only 13 marks occur in certain fixed groups on the obverse of 1,226 coins, no less than 89 marks, in which also all varieties of the same object have been included under one number, occur on the reverse.

Among the coins from Afghanistan described by Mr. R. D. Banerji, out of the 39 rectangular coins 11, namely one-fourth, bear no mark on the reverse, and out of the 5" Roughly Circular or Oval Coins" two, namely more than one-third, bear no mark on the reverse.

The marks on the reverse may be the marks of merchants and money-changers through whose hands the coins passed.

One mark on the reverse of the present coins (Fig. 59) is very interesting, as a close examination of it shows that this mark on the reverse of coins Nos. 18, 42 and 83 not only is it the same mark, but that it has been punched with the identical punch.

The illustrations of the coins on the plates are not quite full size. They are 92 of the actual size of the coins.

My thanks are due to Dr. Caldwell, B.Sc., M.A., PH.D., F.I.C., 1.O.S., F.P. U., for having kindly weighed the present coins.

NOTE.

On Plate III, the obverse and reverse of coin 103 have, by mistake, been transposed. The one shown as the obverse at the top of the Plate being the reverse; and the one shown as the reverse at bottom of the Plate being the obverse.

On Plate IV, Fig. 56 is a reverse mark, occurring on the reverse of coin 103, and has, by mistake, been shown amongst the obverse marks.

J.A.S.B., 1910, p. 227.