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ABRIEF SURVEYOF THECOINAGES OF ASIAFROM THEEARLIEST TIMESTO THEPRESENT DAY
ABRIEF SURVEYOF THECOINAGES OF ASIAFROM THE EARLIEST TIMES (700B.C.) TO THE PRESENT DAY
ByJ. ALLAN,M.A., M.R.A.S.Of the Department of Coins, British Museum
The coins of Asia from the earliest times may be conveniently reviewed in the following geographical and chronological sections: I. Ancient coins of Western and Central Asia (to the rise of Islam, excluding the majority of Greek and Roman coins which have no claim to be Asiatic); II. Mohammadan coins of Western and Central Asia; III. Coins of India (Hindu and Mohammadan); IV. Coins of the Far East; V. Coins struck by European nations for their Asiatic possessions.
I.—ANCIENT COINS OF WESTERN AND CENTRAL ASIA
Origin of Coinage in Lydia.—According to Herodotus (I. 94) the Lydians were the first people to strike coins of gold and silver, while other writers attribute the invention of coinage to Pheidon, king of Argos, who struck coins in Aegina. The truth appears to be that gold, or rather electrum, was first coined in Lydia in the seventh centuryB.C., while silver was first minted in Aegina about the same time. The earliest Lydian coins are believed to have been issued in the time of Gyges, king of Lydia (687-652B.C.). These are rude oval piecesof electrum, a natural mixture of gold and silver found locally, and are stamped on one side only (Plate I.1). The uncertain value of this metal was found an embarrassment to commerce, and Croesus (561-546B.C.), under whose rule Lydia became a great and wealthy power, introduced a coinage of pure gold and of pure silver, ten staters of silver being equal to one of gold (Plate I.2, gold stater).
Persia.—When Cyrus conquered Lydia in 546B.C., the Persians, who, like the Assyrians, had no coined money, became acquainted with the art of coinage. It is not certain when the Persians began to issue coins, but from the statement of Herodotus that Darius Hystaspis (521-486B.C.) coined gold of the finest quality, and the probable etymology of "daric" from Darius, the beginning of the Achaemenid coinage is placed in his reign; it is most probable that it was at Sardes in Lydia that Darius first struck his coins, as there he would be most likely to find skilled artificers. The coins of the Persian empire were thedaricof gold about equal in value to the stater of Croesus (or rather more than an English sovereign in metal value) and thesiglos(shekel) of which twenty were the equivalent of a daric. The types were the same on each coin, viz., on the obverse, the Persian King in a half-kneeling position holding a bow in his left hand and a spear in his right, while the reverse still had no type but only a rough incuse caused in striking the coins (Plate I.3, daric). These two coins remained the official coinage of the Persian empire till its fall. The conquered Greek cities were not allowed to strike gold, but the issue of silver and copper by them was not interfered with; in addition certain Persian satraps were allowed to issue silver coins bearing their own names.
Phoenicia.—In spite of their commercial activity, the Phoenician cities of the Mediterranean coast did not begin to strike coins until comparatively late times, the end of the fifth and beginning of the fourth centuriesB.C.We possess extensive silver coinages of the fourth century for most of these cities, those of Tyre and Sidon being particularly important. Thetetradrachms of Tyre have as types, a dolphin or the god Melkart riding on a sea-horse and an owl with crook and flail, Egyptian symbols of royalty (Plate I.4,c.410-332B.C.). The double shekels of Sidon bear on the obverse a galley with sails or rowers often before a walled city, and on the reverse the suzerain king of Persia in a chariot (Plate I.5,c.400-384B.C.).
Imitations of Athenian coins.—The coins of Athens circulated very widely in the ancient world, particularly in Central Asia, where imitations of them were made when the Athenian mint could no longer supply the demand (Plate I. 6, imitation of Athenian tetradrachm). On some of these imitations the owl was replaced by an eagle, while Athenian influence can still be traced in the remarkably neat coins of Sophytes (Plate I.11, reverse, cock), whom Alexander found reigning on the North-West Indian frontier on his march across it in 326B.C.
Alexander III., the Great.—When the Persian empire fell before Alexander the Great his coins became current throughout Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Indus, and profoundly influenced all later coinages. His gold coins (the stater, with its multiple the distater and its sub-divisions) have on the obverse a head of Athena, and on the reverse a winged Victory with the king's name; the silver (drachm, with multiples and subdivisions) has on the obverse a head of the young Herakles in lion-skin, and reverse, Zeus seated on throne holding eagle and sceptre (Plate I.7). Tetradrachms bearing Alexander's name and types continued to be struck for a century and a half after his death, and they are at the present day the commonest of ancient coins.
Seleucid Kings of Syria.—We possess an extensive series of coins of the Seleucid kings of Syria, the dynasty founded by Seleucus Nikator (312-280B.C.), the general of Alexander who succeeded to his Asiatic heritage. The earliest Seleucid coins (before 306B.C.) retained the name and types of Alexander, but soon a greater variety of types was adopted, while the king's head began to appear regularly on the obverse. The Seleucid coins are remarkable for the unique series of portraits they giveus. One of the commonest types of the Seleucid series has the king's head on the obverse, and a seated Apollo with bow and arrow on the reverse (Plate I.8, gold stater of Antiochus I., 280-266B.C.;Plate I.10, silver tetradrachm of Antiochus IV., 175-166B.C.).
Bactria.—About the middle of the third centuryB.C.the empire founded by Seleucus began to break up. A line of kings was founded in Bactria by Diodotos, a revolted satrap, whose independence Antiochus II. had to acknowledge. The earlier coins of these kings, who afterwards crossed into India and gradually lost their Hellenism, present some of the finest examples of portraiture on Greek coins (Plate I.9, gold stater of Diodotos I.,c.250B.C.).
Judaea.—Among the smaller kingdoms who became independent of the Seleucids in the second centuryB.C.may be mentioned that of the Jews. Certain shekels, bearing on the obverse a chalice with the legend "shekel of Israel," and on the reverse a branch with three buds and the legend "Jerusalem the Holy" (Plate II.1), have been attributed to Simon Maccabaeus (143-135B.C.), but they may belong to the First Revolt (66-70A.D.).
Parthia.—About the same period, the great Parthian kingdom was founded in Central Asia and lasted till 220A.D.The Parthian coinage is of silver (drachms and tetradrachms) and bronze. Although Parthian drachms are at the present day one of the most extensive of ancient coinages, their classification is exceedingly difficult on account of our ignorance of Parthian history, and the fact that the coins do not bear the name of the issuer but of Arsakes, the founder of the dynasty. The silver drachms bear on the obverse the portrait of the reigning king, and on the reverse the first king Arsakes seated holding a bow, with a legend in Greek characters which is at first simply (coin of) "the king Arsakes" (Plate II.2, drachm of Mithridates I. the Great, 171-138B.C.), but gradually increases in length till a century later it assumes the form (coin of) "the king of kings Arsakes, the just, the illustrious, the beneficent, the friend of the Greeks,"which remains the usual legend. Tetradrachms with similar legends were also struck in large numbers; their usual reverse type is the Parthian king seated, receiving a wreath from the goddess of Victory or from a City goddess (Plate II.3, tetradrachm of Phraates IV., 38-3B.C.). After the reign of Phraates IV. the coins are dated in the Seleucid era, while the later coins bear a Pehlevi legend in addition to the Greek inscription which is by this time almost unintelligible.
Sassanian Empire.—Early in the third centuryA.D.the last remnants of Parthian power were destroyed by Ardashir, a Persian prince, who founded the Sassanian empire, which after successfully disputing the supremacy of Asia with the Romans for four centuries finally fell before the conquering hosts of Islam. The Sassanian silver coins, particularly of the later kings, are exceedingly numerous at the present day, but the gold and copper are rare. The types of the gold and silver are throughout the dynasty the same; on the obverse is the head of the king with a long legend of the form, "Ardashir, worshipper of Ahura Mazda, divine king of kings of Iran, a scion of the celestial race," on the reverse a fire-altar, usually with two attendant priests, and at first the legend "the fire of Ardashir" (etc.), later the mint and regnal year of issue. The earlier coins are of remarkably good workmanship, and give us fine portraits of the Sassanian kings (Plate II.4, gold coin of Ardashir I., 226-241A.D.;Plate II.5, silver drachm of Sapor I., 241-272A.D.). The gold coins weigh rather less than an English sovereign, and their standard appears to be derived from Roman solidi; the silver coins are drachms following the Parthian standard, and, particularly the latter pieces, are remarkable for their thin fabric (e.g.Plate II.7, Khusrau (Chosroes) II., Parvez, 590-628A.D.) which was copied by the Arabs in their silver coins, and can be traced in certain Mohammadan series to the present day.
Bibliography.—B. V. Head,Historia Numorum(Oxford,1911), pp. 643-845; B. V. Head,Coinage of Lydia and Persia(London, 1878); British Museum Catalogue of Greek Coins,Lydia(1901),Syria(1878),Parthia(1905),Phoenicia(1910); E. Babelon,Perses Acheménides(Paris, 1893); E. Babelon,Rois de Syrie(Paris, 1890); Dorn & Bartholomaei,Monnaies Sassanides(St. Petersburg, 1875).
II.—MOHAMMADAN COINAGES(Exclusive of India)
Beginnings of Arab Coinage.—The Arabs were unacquainted with the art of coinage till they learned it on their campaigns of conquest in Syria (Byzantine) and Persia (Sassanian). At first they were content to issue gold and copper pieces imitated from contemporary Byzantine coins (Plate II.9, early copper coin of Abd-al-Malik; obverse, figure of the Caliph; reverse, modified Byzantine cross), while their silver pieces were copies of late Sassanian coins (likePlate II.7), with the addition ofbismillah(in the name of God) on the margin.
Abd-al-Malik's Reformed Currency.—Though one traditionist says that even Adam felt the need for money and struck dinars and dirhems, more reliable authorities agree in attributing to Abd-al-Malik, the fifth Omayyad Caliph (684-705A.D.), the institution in 696A.D.of a purely Muslim coinage, worthy of the great Arab empire and the foundations on which it was built. This coinage was of gold, silver, and copper, and the namesdinar(denarius aureus),dirhem(drachma), andfalus(follis), which have remained in use practically to the present day, were borrowed from the Byzantines. The dinar originally weighed rather more than half a sovereign, while the dirhem was a little less than sixpence in English money, but the names came to mean simply gold and silver coin respectively.
Mohammad's interdiction of any form of image-making, as savouring of idolatry, limited the orthodox Caliph to legends on his coins, but thereby gave Arab coins an importance as historical documents possessed by no other series. From theearliest times they bore the mint and date (in the Mohammadan era dating from 622A.D.), and later the ruler's name and titles, often including valuable genealogical data, were added. The right of striking coins was one of the privileges of sovereignty, and Muslim coins thus throw a good deal of light on Arab history.
Plate II.6 is a dinar, andPlate II.8 a dirhem of Abd-al-Malik; both bear on the obverse the profession of faith, "There is no god but God; He hath no associate:" around the reverse of the dinar is the legend, "In the name of God this dinar was struck in the year 77" (696A.D.), while the similar inscription on the dirhem includes the mint (Damascus, 79A.H.) and is placed around the obverse. On both the reverse areas is "God is alone; God is eternal; He begets not and is not begotten" (the dinar ends here, but the dirhem continues) "nor is there any one like unto Him" (Koran, cxii.). Around the obverse of the dinar and reverse of the dirhem is, "Mohammad is the prophet of God, sent with guidance and the religion of truth to make it prevail over all other religions" (dinar stops here), "averse though the idolaters may be" (Koran ix. 33).
Abbasids.—In 750A.D.the Abbasids overthrew the Omayyads, and at first made but superficial alterations in the coinage; the long reverse formula was replaced by the simple profession, "Mohammad is the prophet of God."Plate III.2, a dinar of the "good" Caliph Harun-al-Rashid (786-809A.D.) is typical of the period, except that it bears the name of his ill-fated vizier, Ja'afar, who will be remembered by readers of theArabian Nightsas the companion of the Caliph's nocturnal ramblings, on whom this signal honour was conferred. In the ninth century a second marginal inscription, "To God belongs the order before and after, and in that day the believers shall rejoice in the help of God" (Koran, xxx. 3, 4) was added on the obverse, while the Caliph's name begins to appear regularly on the reverse area.
Contemporaries of the Caliphs.—Coins with similar legends were struck by the various dynasties which arose on the weakeningof the authority of the Caliph in the ninth and tenth centuries. In addition to the ruler's name they usually bear the name of the reigning Caliph, whose spiritual authority was still recognised; such arePlate III.1, a dirhem of the Samanid Nasr b. Ahmad struck in 300A.H.at Samarkand, which was then one of the great centres of Mohammadan learning and literary activity;Plate III.4, a Buwayhid dinar of Rukn-al-Daula (932-976A.D.), struck at Hamadan in 352A.H., bearing the name of thefainéantCaliph al-Muti; andPlate III.6, a dinar, struck at Rayy, 447A.H., of the Great Seljuk Toghrul Beg (1037-1063A.D.), the Turkish conqueror of Western Asia whose descendants were among the most redoubtable of the "Saracens."Plate III.3, a dinar of the last Abbasid Caliph—Al-Mustasim (1242-1258A.D.), illustrates the change in the fabric and calligraphy of the coinage which had taken place in six centuries.Plate III.5 is a dinar of Mahmud of Ghazni (998-1030A.D.), with the reverse legend in Sanskrit for the benefit of his Indian subjects.
Seljuks, Ortukids, and Ayyubids(Saracens).—Plate III.7, a dirhem of Sulaiman II. (1199-1203A.D.), a Seljuk of Asia Minor, is the first of a series of striking deviations from the orthodox Mohammadan type, prompted as much by necessities of commerce with Christian nations as by a lack of orthodoxy on the part of their issuers, heretics though they were. The obverse area is occupied by a horseman holding a mace over his shoulder, while around is the Shia form of the Mohammadan creed (as above, with the addition of the words "Ali is the friend of God"); the reverse bears the usual data.Plate III.8 is a dirhem of one of his successors Kaikubad I. (1219-1236A.D.), a fine specimen of the calligraphy of the period;Plate III.9, is a dirhem of his successor, Kai-Khusru II. (1136-1245A.D.), bearing the "lion and sun," the horoscope of his beautiful Georgian wife, whose portrait he wished to place on his coins, till his counsellors persuaded him to be content with her horoscope. The coins of the Ortukids, who were also prominent opponents of the Crusaders, areremarkable for their immense variety of types borrowed from all sources (Greek, Roman, Byzantine, etc.).Plate IV.1, reverse of a copper coin of Kara Arslan (1148-1174A.D.), andPlate IV.2, of a copper coin of Alpi (1152-1176A.D.), represent Christ seated and the Virgin crowning the emperor respectively, both well-known Byzantine types. The Saracen best known by name to English readers is Saladin the Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt and Syria (1169-93A.D.) whose capture of Jerusalem in 1187 provoked the Third Crusade in which Richard I., Cœur-de-Lion, took a prominent part.Plate IV.3 is a dirhem struck by him at Damascus, his Syrian capital, in 582A.H.(1186A.D.).
Mongols.—In the thirteenth century the Mongols, led by the Chingiz Khan (1206-1227A.D.), one of the greatest conquerors the world has known, subjugated practically all Asia with the exception of India.Plate IV.4 is one of the rare coins attributed to Chingiz Khan, whilePlate IV.5 is a handsome dinar struck by Arghun, one of the earliest (1284-1295A.D.) of the Persian line of Mongols (obverse, Mohammadan (Shia) creed and date, etc.; reverse, the Khan's titles, etc., in Mongol). Tamerlane (1369-1404A.D.) (Timur Lang, Timur the Lame), a distant descendant of Chingiz Khan, is another great conqueror familiar to English readers through Marlowe and Gibbon. One of the coins struck by him, with the name of his nominal sovereign, Suyurghatmish, is figured onPlate IV.6.Plate IV.7 is a dirhem of his son and ultimate successor, Shah Rukh (1404-1447A.D.), of a type (obverse, Mohammadan creed, with the names of the four orthodox Caliphs around the margin; reverse, titles) which was very popular in the fifteenth and sixteenth century.Plate IV.8 is an early Ottoman coin struck by Mohammad I. (1402-1421A.D.) at Brusa in 822A.H.(1419A.D.), of a type which served the Turks for some centuries.
Persia.—The earliest coins of the Shahs of Persia (e.g.Plate IV.10, reverse of a silver coin of Ismail I. (1502-1524A.D.) struck at Meshhed in 924A.H.(1518A.D.)) are of the typeinstituted by Shah Rukh to which they may be traced through the Shaibanid coinage; the later Persian coins are smaller and thicker (Plate IV.12, mohur of the great conqueror Nadir Shah (1736-1747A.D.)).Plate IV.11, a gold tuman of Fath-Ali Shah (1797-1834A.D.), the first Shah with whom England entered into diplomatic relations, is a remarkable fine product of the Persian mint. Nasir-al-Din (1848-1896A.D.) instituted a mint on the European model in Teheran, and struck coins with his portrait (e.g.Plate IV.13, a gold tuman), or the Lion and Sun, on the obverse and his titles on the reverse.
Bukhara.—The coins of the Emirs of Bukhara, now under Russian suzerainty, are mainly of gold (e.g.Plate IV.9, a gold tila of the fanatical Haidar Tora, 1800-1826A.D.).
Afghanistan.—The Emirs (Durrani and Barakzai) of Afghanistan, who became independent of Persia in the eighteenth century, adopted the standards and types of their Moghul contemporaries. A mint on the European model has recently been established in Kabul, and its coins are rapidly replacing older issues.
Bibliography.—O. Codrington,Musulman Numismatics(London, 1904); S. Lane-Poole,Mohammadan Dynasties(London, 1894); British Museum Catalogue of Oriental Coins, vols, i.-x.; British Museum Catalogue of Persian Coins,Shahs of Persia(1887); W. H. Valentine,Copper Coins of Modern Muhammadan States(London, 1911); M. Longworth Dames,Coins of the Durranis(Numismatic Chronicle, 1888); L. White King,Coins of the Barakzais(Numismatic Chronicle, 1896).
III.—COINS OF INDIA
Early Hindu Coins.—The earliest coins of India are square or oblong pieces of silver or copper punched with various symbols, the exact significance of which is not exactly known. They were probably made by money-changers or by theauthority responsible for the purity of the coin. These pieces date from as early as the fourth centuryB.C.and circulated all over India (Plate V.1). To a somewhat later date belong the coins of various native states in North India; these soon became profoundly influenced by the coinages of foreign invaders, and indeed it is only lately that the independent origin of coinage in India has been generally recognised (Plate V.3, silver coin of the Kuninda king, Amoghabhuti, second centuryB.C.).
Foreign Invaders.—Early in the second centuryB.C., in the reign of Euthydemus, the Greeks of Bactria began to invade India. We possess coins of his son Demetrius, of the square Indian form with an Indian legend on the reverse, showing a compromise between the Greek and Indian methods of coinage. Henceforth the coins of his successors, many of whom are otherwise unknown to history, are bilingual (Plate V.2, hemidrachm of Apollodotos I.,c.150B.C.). Towards the end of the second centuryB.C.the Scythians invaded Bactria and India; their coins are imitated from those of their Greek predecessors, but are much inferior as works of art (Plate V.4, silver coin of Azes I.,c.90B.C.).
They were followed about the middle of the first centuryB.C.by the Kushans who founded a great empire in North-West India. The Kushan kings of whom the greatest was Kanishka, famed in Buddhist legend, have left a great wealth of gold and copper coins remarkable for the variety of deities (Zoroastrian, Greek, Hindu, and Buddha) depicted on their reverses (Plate V.5, gold coin of Kanishka).
Andhras and Western Satraps.—During the first three centuriesA.D.the Western Satraps, a dynasty of Scythic origin, ruled a powerful kingdom in Western India. Their coinage of silver, forming a long dated series, appears to be derived from hemidrachms of the Greek kings possibly influenced by Roman denarii (Plate V.8, Damaghsada,c.180A.D.). Unique among India coinages is the lead coinage of the Andhras who ruled in Central and Southern India from the third centuryB.C.till they fell before the Satraps (Plate V.7, Vilivayakura,c.100 A.D.; reverse only).
Guptas.—A new era in the history of India begins in the fourth centuryA.D.with the rise of the Gupta dynasty which conquered practically all India and held it for two centuries. Their coinage, mainly of gold, is derived from the Kushan, but displays great originality and variety of types, and has legends in pure Sanskrit (Plate V.9, gold coin (suvarna) of Samudragupta, 340-380A.D., commemorating his horse-sacrifice on his conquests;V.10,suvarnaof Kumaragupta I., 414-450A.D.).
Huns.—The Gupta empire finally fell before the inroads of barbarous Huns, who swept down through Persia on India about the same time that their kinsmen under Attila were ravaging Europe. They have left numerous coins imitated from Sassanian or Indian types (Plate V.12, silver coin of Toramana,c.514-544A.D., with Sassanian types). From the Hun imitations of Sassanian coins are descended certain coins of very rude fabric known to the natives as "asses' head" money, which circulated very largely in North India from the sixth to the eighth century (Plate V.11).
Mediaeval Hindu Dynasties.—The later Kushan type (Plate V.6, gold,c.250A.D.), with a king standing, sacrificing at altar on the obverse and a goddess enthroned facing on the reverse, survived for centuries on the base gold and rude copper coins of Kashmir (Plate VI.1, gold, Yasovarman,c.730A.D.), and the seated goddess remains a familiar type on the gold coins of the mediaeval Hindu dynasties of the present United and Central Provinces, and even survived on the coins of Mohammadan invaders (Plate VI.4, gold coin of Hallakshanavarman, 1097-1110A.D., of Jejahuti). Among the commonest of Indian coins are the silver "Bull and Horseman" coins of the Brahman kings of Kandahar (Plate VI.2, Spalapatideva,c.875A.D.), the types of which were copied by various Hindu kings (e.g.Plate VI.3, Prithvi-Raja of Delhi, 1166-1192A.D.) and retained by their Mohammadan conquerors.
South India.—In South India the primitive punch-marked coins remained much longer in circulation than in the north,and from the frequent finds of Roman gold and silver coins, it is probable that these formed the major part of the currency in the early centuries of the Christian era. Many of the Hindu coins of South India are uninscribed, and their attribution is still uncertain. To the Chera dynasty of Malabar are attributed certain gold coins having an elephant on the obverse (Plate V.13, thirteenth century). Copper coins, having on the obverse a figure of the king standing and on the reverse the king seated, were introduced by Rajaraja of the Chola dynasty (c.1030A.D.); this type spread through South India, was introduced into Ceylon on the Chola conquest, and adopted there by the independent kings of Kandy (Plate VI.7, Parakramabahu, 1153-1186A.D.). Thick gold cup-shaped pieces are attributed to the Western Chalukyas of the Deccan (eighth centuryA.D.,Plate VI.6), while large thin gold coins were struck by the eastern branch of the family (Plate VI.8, Rajaraja, 1021-1062A.D.); both bear the Chalukya emblem, the boar. Certain cup-shaped gold pieces bearing a lotus were struck by the Kadambas of Northern Mysore (Plate VI.9). The great mediaeval Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagara (Mysore) has left an extensive series of gold and copper coins. Its small gold coins called pagodas (Plate VI.5, Venkata Raya,c.1530-1542A.D.), bearing one or more deities on the obverse, formed the pattern for later coinages not only of the native states but also of various European invaders of South India.
Sultans of Delhi.—When Mohammad bin Sam (1193-1205A.D.) defeated the allied Hindu forces on the plain of Thaneswar in 1193 he became master of India and founded the dynasty known as the Sultans of Delhi, which survived till the Moghul conquest. In addition to striking coins of the usual Mohammadan type he copied the coins of his Hindu predecessors (e.g.Plate VI.10, copper,cf.2 and 3;VI.11, gold,cf.4). The coins of his successors are the tanka (about 175 grains) in gold and in silver, in addition to smaller coins of copper and billon.Plate VI.13 may be taken as typical; it is a gold tanka of Mohammad III. bin Tughlak (1324-1351A.D.); on one side itbears the name of the Sultan, "Mohammad Shah Sultan who trusts in the support of the Merciful One," with a marginal inscription giving the date and mint (Delhi, 726A.H.(1326A.D.)); on the other side is a form of the Muslim creed.Plate VI.12 is one of the remarkable brass tokens with which the same Sultan sought to displace gold and silver money. It bears a legend giving the value at which it was to pass, and an appeal to the piety of his subjects in a legend from the Koran, "He that obeys the Sultan obeys the Merciful One." Though no fraud was intended, this token currency was a failure.Plate VI.14 is a silver tanka of Sher Shah (1539-1545A.D.), one of the last and one of the greatest of the Sultans of Delhi. The obverse bears the Mohammadan creed and the names of the first four caliphs on the margin, a type which survived for two centuries longer in the Moghul coins. The coins of the various Mohammadan states which became independent of Delhi in the fifteenth century cannot be detailed here.Plate VII.1, a silver tanka of Ghiyas-al-Din of Malwa (1468-1500A.D.), may be taken as typical of them.
Moghul Emperors.—The Moghul Emperors made but little change in the types and standards of the coins of their predecessors, but gave the standard gold coin the name mohur, while the silver was called the rupee.Plate VII.2 is a mohur of Jalal-al-Din ("Glory of the Faith"), Mohammad Akbar (1556-1605A.D.), struck at Agra in 976A.H.(1568A.D.), similar in type to Sher Shah's tanka (Plate VI.14). The coins of his son Nur-al-Din ("Light of the Faith"), Mohammad Jahangir (1605-1627A.D.), are the most remarkable of the series.Plate VII.3, a mohur of Jahangir, is a fine specimen of calligraphy (obverse, Mohammadan creed; reverse, titles and mint; Lahore, 1015A.H.), whilePlate VII.4 is the obverse (Ram) of a mohur of the remarkable series issued by him bearing the signs of the zodiac. Jahangir was, like many of the Moghuls, a heavy drinker, and went so far as to portray himself with the wine cup in his hand on a well-known mohur (Plate VII.5).Plate VII.6, a mohur of his successor Shihab-al-Din ("Flame of theFaith"), Shah Jahan (1628-1659), is typical of the coinage of the period (obverse asPlate VII.2, reverse, titles; Agra, 1050A.H.(1640A.D.)). His successor, Aurangzib (1659-1707A.D.), replaced the religious legends on the obverse by the mint and date, and this remained the usual type to the end of the series. (Plate VII.7, mohur of Shah Alam II. 1759-1806A.D.; Delhi, 1205A.H.).
At the end of the eighteenth century numerous states became practically independent of the Great Moghul, but struck coins which still bore his name. When the last Moghul Emperor was deposed in 1858, the name of Queen Victoria began to appear on the coins of such native states as were allowed to continue issuing coins. To attain uniformity in the currency of the empire this right has been gradually curtailed by the British government, and is now exercised only by a few of the more important states, such as Hyderabad, which issues coins struck by modern European machinery.
Assam and Nepal.—Two important Hindu kingdoms, Assam and Nepal, were never subject to the Moghuls. The kings of Assam issued an extensive coinage (octagonal in form) till their territory was acquired by Britain (Plate VII.8, rupee "of the divine king Siva Sinha (1714-1744A.D.) a bee on the lotus feet of Hara and Gauri").Plate VII.9 is a silver mohur of Prthvi Vira Vikrama (1881) of Nepal, the reigning Maharaja of Nepal.
Bibliography.—E. J. Rapson,Indian Coins(Strassburg, 1897); Sir A. Cunningham,Coins of Ancient India(London, 1891),Coins of Mediaeval India(1894); British Museum Catalogue of Indian Coins,Greek and Scythic Kings(1886),Andhras and Western Ksatrapas(1908),Sultans of Delhi(1885),Muhammadan States(1885),Moghul Emperors(1891); Catalogue of Coins in the Indian Museum, vol. i. by V. A. Smith (Oxford, 1906), vols. ii. and iii. (1907, 1908) by H. Nelson Wright; E. H. Walsh,The Coins of Nepal(Journ. of Roy. Asiat. Society, 1907); J. Allan,Coinage of Assam(Num. Chron., 1908).
IV.—THE COINAGES OF THE FAR EAST
China.—The earliest coins of China, like those of Western Asia, date from the seventh centuryB.C.: these are small bronze spades and knives, copies of the actual spades, knives, or rather billhooks, and other small articles of husbandry which had previously been used for barter. The knives are about seven inches long and bear an inscription giving the weight or value and the name of the town or confederacy which issued it; a modified form of the spade money, called thepu(flattened) money, circulated widely in the fifth and fourth centuriesB.C.(Plate VIII.1, apucoin of the town of Lu-Yang). Round money had been made as early as the fourth centuryB.C., but it was not till 221B.C.that the great reformer Shih Huang Ti (221-210B.C.), the "First Emperor," definitely superseded all previous currencies by round coins. His coins were pieces of half an ounce (pan-liang), and were continued by the Han dynasty (Plate VIII.6, apan-liangof the Empress Kao Hou, 187-179B.C.).
This coinage gradually became so debased and counterfeited that in 118B.C.the Emperor Wu Ti (122-117B.C.) issued a new bronze coinage of five-chupieces (Plate VIII.2); the five-chupiece remained the standard coin for the next eight centuries. The attempted monetary reforms of the usurper Wang Mang (9-22A.D.) may be mentioned here. In addition to reviving a modifiedpuand knife money (Plate VIII.4), he instituted a round coinage (ho tsiuen,Plate VIII.3), but after his assassination and the restoration of the Han dynasty the five-chupiece was restored. The history of Chinese currency is henceforth a continual struggle between the government and the counterfeiter. On one occasion at least, the government sought to get rid of the forgers by making the most skilled of them mint officials.
In 618A.D.the Tang emperor Kao Tsu (618-627A.D.) issued theKai yuan tung pao, "current money of the inauguration"(i.e.of the Tang dynasty,Plate VIII.5), which gave the coinages of the Far East the form they have retained almost to the present day. From the time of the Sung dynasty (960-1120A.D.) onwards the legend took the form "current money of" (name of regnal period) (Plate VIII.8, "current money of (the) Sung Yuan" period, 960-976A.D.). The Southern Sung dynasty (1127-1278A.D.) dated their coins on the reverse in regnal years. The Mongols (1260-1341A.D.) issued but little copper money. An account of their extensive paper currency in the reign of Kublai Khan (1260-1295A.D.) is given by Marco Polo. The Ming dynasty (1368-1628A.D.) placed the mint-name on the reverse, while the Ching dynasty (1628-1911) placed the mint-name in Manchu on the reverse (Plate VIII.7, Shun-che period, 1644-1662A.D.; Pekin mint).
It is only recently that a serious attempt to institute a silver coinage in China has been made. In the nineties of last century, mints with European machinery were instituted in each province, and struck silver and copper coins of European fabric (Plate IX.1, half-dollar of the late Emperor Kuang Hsü, 1875-1910) for Sze-Chuan. During the last thirty years bilingual silver coins have been issued for the Mohammadan population of Chinese Turkestan (Plate IX.6, reverse of a five mithkal piece of Kashgar). One of the most remarkable of Chinese coins is the silver rupee recently issued for the Sze-chuan province, bearing the Emperor's head, and copied from the Indian rupee, with which it is destined to compete for Tibetan trade (Plate IX.3).
Japan.—The Japanese borrowed the art of coinage from the Chinese, and issued coins as early as 708A.D.Plate VIII.9 is an early Japanese copper coin orsenof the period 818-835A.D.(inscription—"Divine Treasure of Wealth and Longevity"). From the tenth to the sixteenth centuries the main coinage of Japan consisted of imitations of contemporary Chinese coins. One of the commonest of Japanese coins is thekwan-eisen (Plate VIII.10), which was extensively issued from 1624-1859. Large, flat gold coins (obansandkobans)were frequently issued from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. The smaller gold and silver coins of this period are rectangular (Plate IX.7, a goldbuof 1837A.D.).Plate IX.4 is the obverse of a coin (a piece of 5momme) with an interesting history. In 1765, a high official named Taruna ordered that all silver ornaments should be confiscated as useless luxuries and made into coins. This edict aroused great indignation, particularly among the fair sex, and its enforcement was one of the causes which led to the assassination of the tyrannical governor. In 1869 a mint with European machinery was established in Tokio, and a coinage of gold, silver (yenor dollar), and copper (sen, 100 = 1 dollar) on the European model adopted (Plate IX.5, 50 sen of the sixth year of Meiji, 1873).
Corea, Annam, and Siam.—Corea issued bronze coins in the Chinese style in its various intervals of independence. The commonest is theShang Pingcash issued at various mints from 1790 to 1881 (Plate VIII.11).Plate IX.2 is a piece of oneyang(silver) issued by the new mint in 1898. Japanese influence may be traced in it (cf.Plate IX.5), as on the Chinese coin of Kashgar (Plate IX.6). The kings of Annam issued an extensive coinage modelled on the Chinese till Annam became a French possession. Siam has issued a coinage struck by European machinery since 1850 (Plate IX.8, rupee of Phra Chom Klao, 1850-1868A.D.).
Bibliography.—Terrien de Lacouperie, British Museum Catalogue of Chinese Coins, vol. i. (all published) (1892); J. H. S. Lockhart,Currency of the Farther East(Hong-Kong, 1893-1895); H. G. Munro,Coinage of Japan(Yokohama, 1904); A. Schroeder,Annam, Etudes Numismatiques(Paris, 1905).
V.—COINS OF EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS IN ASIA
English.—In 1600 Queen Elizabeth granted a Royal Charter to "The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies," and soon afterwards ordered silver coins to be struck at the Tower Mint for the Company's use in the Indies(Plate X.2, sixpence or real of this issue). In 1677 the first English mint in India was established at Bombay, which had come to Charles II. in 1662 as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, and rupees and copper cash were issued in the name of Charles II., or "bearing the name of their impure king" as an indignant Moghul historian describes them. For trade with the natives, however, the Company required coins of a type familiar to them, and had to send their bullion to be minted at the Moghul mints or to imitate Moghul coins at their own mints, the latter course being really forgery, as it was not till the middle of the eighteenth century that the Great Moghul finally allowed them to issue coins freely in his name (Plate X.5, half-rupee of Murshidabad struck by the East India Company in name of Shah Alam II. in 1768A.D.). In 1641 the Company had acquired a settlement at Fort St. George (Madras) and thenceforth issued coins in imitation of the local currencies of the Coromandel coast (Plate X.3, gold star pagoda;Plate X.1, silver fanam (cf.Plate VI.5);Plate X.4 is the later pagoda of European fabric issued at the end of the eighteenth century). It was not till 1835 that the name of an English king again appeared on the coins of the East India Company, when a uniform coinage of English style was adopted for India (Plate X.6, quarter-rupee of William IV.). There has since been little change in the type then adopted. In 1858 the name of the East India Company disappears from the reverse, and in 1877 the proclamation of Queen Victoria as Empress of India necessitated a change of title on the obverse (Plate X.7, quarter-rupee of Victoria).
In 1796, the English occupied Ceylon, hitherto a Dutch possession, and were confirmed in its possession by the treaty of Amiens in 1802. The earlier coins were struck on the standard introduced by their predecessors (Plate X.8, a silver piece of 24 stivers). In 1836 the English standard was adopted, and silver coins (three-halfpenny pieces) and copper (half-farthings) issued till 1870, when the cent was adopted as the standard coin (Plate X.9, 25 cents (silver) of George V.).
The East India Company issued coins similar to their later Indian issues for their possessions in the Malay Peninsula, and since 1867 there has been a regular Imperial coinage (100 cents = one dollar) for the Straits Settlements and also for Hong-Kong (Plate X.10, 5 cents (silver) of Edward VII.).
Portuguese.—In 1510 Albuquerque captured Goa, which became the capital of the Portuguese empire in the east, and increased in wealth and commercial importance so rapidly that it became known as "Golden Goa" (Goa Dourada). From the time of Albuquerque the Portuguese have issued coins here, always with European types.Plate X.11 is apardaoor half-rupee of Maria struck at Goa in 1808, and is typical of the coinage for nearly three centuries previous. Since 1881 the coins for Goa, which is now all that is left of the Portuguese possessions in the East, have been struck at the Bombay mint, and are uniform with those of British India (Plate X.12, quarter-rupee, 1885).
Dutch, etc.—Towards the end of the sixteenth century the Dutch began to dispute Portuguese supremacy in the East, and ultimately acquired considerable possessions in the Malay Archipelago. An extensive coinage was issued by the Dutch East India Company in Java in the eighteenth century (Plate X.13, gold rupee of Java, and X. 14, copper doit). The latter coins of the Dutch territories in the East are similar to the coins of Holland. Coins have also been struck for their Indian possessions of France (Pondichery) and Denmark (Tranquebar) on local standards but with European types.
Bibliography.—J. Atkins,Coins of the British Possessions and Colonies(London, 1889); E. Thurston,The Coinage of the East India Company(Madras, 1890); G. da Cuñha,Indo-Portuguese Numismatics(Bombay, 1880); J. A. van der Chijs,De Munten van Nederlandsch Indië(Batavia, 1859).