The coins, of which delineations are now offered to the public, form an extensive and important contribution to a branch of numismatic enquiry which has been, within a few years, successfully prosecuted in India. To Colonel Tod belongs the merit of having introduced it to notice by his paper on Greek, Parthian and Hindu medals, in the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society: further information was published in the 17th volume of the Researches of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; and the Journal of the same Society contains several interesting communications on the same subject, many of these relate to the present collection, which, for the variety, number, and description of the coins that it comprises, and the authentication of the sites in which they were found, is of the highest interest and value.
The coins in question may be classed under four divisions, exclusive of the Macedonian and Syrian medals, which sometimes occur. These are—1. Bactrian, 2. Indo-Grecian, 3. Indo-Scythian, and 4. Hindu. In the former there have been discovered by Colonel Tod and Dr. Swiney: coins of Apollodotus and Menander, one such coin has been found by Lieutenant Burnes, and one of Euthydemus, besides several which cannot be ascribed to any individual prince, although unquestionably Bactrian coins. The Indo-Grecian coins are comparatively rare, and the series is not very extensive: one specimen is in the present collection. The Indo-Scythian coins are more numerous, and offer a number of interesting specimens: some of them are the same as those described by Colonel Tod, Mr. Prinsep, and myself; but there are some which are new, and there is one (pl. iv. fig. 18.) which is in better preservation than any that has hitherto been found.
The coins of the last class, or Hindu are less numerous in this than in other collections, but such as it comprises are new.
Besides these coins, which are the subjects of more special attention, as little known and calculated to throw light on Indian history, the collection includes a gold and several copper coins of the Sassanian kings of Persia, and a number of Mahommedan coins, for the verification of which there has not yet been an opportunity: from their late date, however, and the fulness of the information derivable from Mahommedan writers with regard to the history of this part of Turan, less interest attaches to them than to the Greek and Indian coins, and it was less necessary to have them delineated. The following are brief notices of the coins which are engraved.
Plate III. No. 1. A coin of Euthydemus, who has been hitherto regarded as the third Bactrian king. Obverse: a head with the Bactrian diadem. Reverse: Hercules sitting on a seat over which the lion’s hide is spread: he holds his club in his right hand, resting it on his right knee. Legend, ΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΕΥΘΥΔΗΜ.
Until recently, the only coin known of this prince was a gold coin, originally published by Pellerin, and described by Mionnet and Visconti. In 1831 the abbé Sestini published a catalogue of the collection of Baron Chaudoir, and has there given a description and plate of a silver coin of Euthydemus, exactly similar to the one in our plate. These are the only two perfect specimens yet described: No. 2. agrees in general character and appearance with No. 1.; but it presents on the obverse a very dissimilar portrait; and the attitude of the sitting Hercules is something different. The letters also vary, and offer only ΛΕΩΣ and ΗΜ. It is possibly, therefore, rather the coin of Demetrius, the son of Euthydemus, than of the latter; but, if so, it differs still more widely from the coin of Demetrius described by Sestini in the collection of the Baron Chaudoir, in which the obverse presents a king, very unlike the individual in our coin, and having on his head an elephant’s hide by way of a crest: on the reverse is a standing figure of Hercules.
The succeeding figures, Nos. 3. to 5., express evidently Bactrian coins, as the device of the sitting Hercules, and the general character of the portraits, sufficiently establish. Some are much worn, and they are more or less of inferior execution, and present no legible inscriptions: such traces of letters as are visible appear to be intended for Greek, although very rude. In the catalogue of Sestini, above referred to, are three coins of a similar description, all Bactrian, evidently having the same sort of profile on one side, and the sitting Hercules on the other. The difference that prevails in the features of the kings whose portraits we have on these coins, sufficiently proves them to belong to different individuals. If these were all Greek kings of Bactria, as is probable, they also show that our series of those kings is much more imperfect than has been hitherto suspected, and that it undoubtedly omits several names, whilst it probably includes others who never ruled over Bactria.
Fig. 6. This coin is identified with the preceding by the reverse, the sitting Hercules; but the execution is much more rude, and the disposition of the hair peculiar. There are characters on the reverse, but undecipherable: they seem designed for Greek. This coin may, perhaps, be referred to one of the first barbaric princes who subdued Sogdiana, if not Bactria Proper, and adopted the device of the Bactrian coins.
7. A copper coin, much worn: on the obverse a standing figure, something like the Apollo on Colonel Tod’s coin of Apollodotus. (Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, pl. 12. fig. 1.) On the reverse, also, is the same figure, a tripod, with similar characters. The letters on the other face are Greek: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ is legible, the others are less distinct; but they appear to be ΝΙΚ. ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ, making this a coin of Menander, not of Apollodotus.
8. Is the coin of an Antiochus; apparently, from the countenance, Antiochus the Great. On the reverse is a standing figure casting a javelin with the right hand, and bearing the lion’s hide by way of shield on the left arm: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ. The device on the reverse is unusual, if it occurs at all amongst the coins of the Antiochi.