ORIENTAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY

Secretary General Europe: Dr. H. J. van der Wiel, Mr. M. R. Broome, UK ع‎ Eire: Mr. K. W. Wiggins, Flat

Newsletter Editor America: Mr. W. 8. Warden, Jr., P Mr. S. Goron, South Asia: Mr. P. P. Kulkarni, Annual Subscription £6.00; H. Fl. 25; FF 75; Regional Secretaries

General; Mr. G. P. Hennequin, NEWSLETTER No. 118

May - June 1989

This month we feature our printers, Paul and Bente Withers of Galataprint. Paul was born in Ebbw Vale, South Wales in 1942 and began collecting foreign coins in a tin box at the age of six. He began training as a metallurgist but left this to take up teaching which he gave up

after ten years to become a coin dealer. Bente was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1950. She was studying to become a pharmacist but gave this up in favour of becoming a coin dealer’s wife - a job not unlike that of a vicar’s wife, i.e. an unpaid curate. Their son Halfdan, aged 16, is not in the least interested in coins or printing.: Their only publication to date is A Catalogue of the Coins, Medals, Tokens, etc. in the Collection of the Assay Office, Birmingham. This is not due to laziness, or a lack of academic inclination, but a lack of time, as their com- * pany, Galata Coins, producesregular issues of its sales list Sacra Moneta and they also typeset and print several numismatic

publications including The Medal, Medailles etc., as well as sales lists for other dealers and of course, the O.N.S. Newsletter.

Their collection of Indian coins began about twenty years ago because at the time Indian coins were non-commercial and collecting them did not conflict with dealing. The first acquisition was an 1876 rupee. Although the collection quickly embraced coins of all periods it remains particularly strong in the coins of the British Raj period. They also collect the pub and market checks of their locality and coin weights. The last mentioned will probably form the basis of a catalogue of coin weights which will hopefully be produced before they retire to France in about two years time. Another hobby is cooking and as you might expect, Indian and other oriental cuisines feature strongly. ONS News

  1. In recent months several meetings involving the ONS have been held in the South Asia Region. On 24-26 September a meeting took place in Bangalore with lectures.on the coins of the Mughals, Tipu Sultan, Western Satraps and South India. With Mr. Sohanlal Sisodiya as convenor, the meeting honoured four eminent scholars of Karnatika, viz. Prof. P. Jagannathan, - Subramanian Achari, L. V. Laxminarayan Rao and U. Vasudeva Rao.

A seminar on the numismatics of Tamilnadu was held on 16-17 April 1989 at Madras under the joint auspices of the Tamilnadu Numismatic Society and the ONS.

Professor Ajay Mitra Shastri receiving TamraPatra (copper plate) from Dr. B. N. Mukherjee

on behalf of the Calcutta Coin Study Circle. (see (2) overleaf).

  1. To celebrate the first anniversary of the Coin Study Circle in Calcutta, a joint event was organised on the 3rd and 4th March by the Circle and the ONS. This involved a series of lectures organised by both groups and an exhibition organised by the Circle. Chief guests at the event were Prof. A. M. Shastri and Dr. J. Deyell, while Dr. B. N. Mukherjee, Dr. R. C. Sharma (Director, Indian Museum), P. P. Kulkarni and Prof. Berghaus also actively participated. The Coin Study Circle honoured Prof. Shastri and Mr. N. S. Dugar, a highly respected collector in Calcutta, by presenting them with specially inscribed copper plates (Tamra-patra). The event was very successful and attracted both television and newspaper coverage.

  2. Gilles Hennequin reports having attended ‘‘a very informal’ ONS meeting in Singapore on 10 February at the residence of R. P. Puddester, Esq. Singapore ONS members John Asplen and C. L. Chu also attended as did B. H. Lim, managing

director of Taisei Singapore. Thanks are due to Mr. and Mrs. Puddester for the generous hospitality.

  1. An ONS meeting will take place in Leiden, the Netherlands, on Saturday 30 September 1989 at 11 a.m. The venue will be the Museum van Oudheden (Archaeological Museum) Rapenburg. Further details from Dr. van der Wiel.

  2. The audited accounts of the Society for the year ended 31st March 1988 are now available. Members wishing to receive a copy should apply to their regional secretary. Members’ News

-.. is disposing of a number of Indian silver punchmarked coins, the duplicates from a period of some 25 years collecting. The material represents nine different states and includes many issues seldom available on the market. A detailed list of the material is available that also includes background information about each state. This is a good opportunity for any member thinking of starting a collection of such coins. Copies of the list are available from Terry Hardaker,….

2… would like to hear from anyone who knows of or has coins of the following dates in the Arab-Sasanian series: Farkhan years PYE 71 to 74, 78, 79 Dalburzmihr years PYE 80 to 85 Khurshid years PYE 112 and 113 (posthumous issues). — Other News

  1. Venetia Porter has been appointed Curator Islamic coins at the British Museum. After studying Arabic and Islamic art at Oxford, Venetia had various jobs, including a time in publishing. She then spent 1% years in the Yemen teaching English and Arabic (the latter to expatriate British!), and researching for her ongoing thesis on the Tahirid dynasty. Back in the UK she spent a year at the British Museum’s Oriental Antiquities Department, where she was involved in the fine Suleiman exhibition. Her present appointment in the Coin & Medal Department is shared with her continuing duties in her previous department. There she is working on the new Islamic gallery and compiling a catalogue of seals and gems.

  2. The Institute of Research in Numismatic Studies (Nasik) organised a workshop on ‘The Practical Guide to the fundamentals of Indian Numismatics’’ from 9-23 December last.

ay The Numismatic Society of India held its 76th Annual Conference at Thanjavur on 12-14 December last. Around 200 scholars and delegates attended and we are very pleased to report that ONS South Asian Regional Secretary, Prashant Kulkarni was awarded the Nelson Wright medal.

  1. The annual coin exhibition of the Coin Society, Nagpur, India, was held on 7-9 October last at Hingoli, Maharashtra.

  2. Gilles Hennequin has sent a report on the numismatic symposium held in Barcelona on 27-28 February in the premises of the Spanish Numismatic Association (ANE). It attracted about 30 participants from Spain, Italy and France. This year’s theme was coin metrology. 18 papers were read, two of them relevant to Muslim numismatics. A. Canto Garcia (Autonomous University, Madrid) dealt with “‘Califal metrology’’ and more specifically with the metrology of the dirhams of the Spanish Umayyad califs from 321 to 399 H (Reigns of Abd al-Rahman III, al-Hakam II & Hisham II). J. Pellicer i Bru (The acting vice president of the ANE and editor of its journal, Gaceta Numismatica), drawing heavily on the contents of his recent book (Al-Andalus, Las fuentes y la numismatica, Barcelona 1988), elaborated on the chronological and metrological significance of monetary equivalences in the Andalusian (i.e. Spanish Muslim) sources. Both days ended with a more formal lecture, and the one on February 27 was also by J. Pellicer i Bru on the Near and Middle Eastern roots of the metrological systems used in Classical (Greek and Roman) Antiquity.

  3. North American members interested in both Indian philately and numismatics will be interested to know of an exhibition entitled “‘Maharajas & Indian Princely States beyond count. The Robbins collection of Fiscal Philately’’ due to take place from 3 October to December this year at the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum, 235 Wellesley Street, Weston, Massachusetts. On display will be Court Fee and revenue stamps, stamp papers, fiscal documents, hundis, stock certificates and cash coupons. Art, maps, photographs, books, coins and postage stamps will be used to document issues raised by the fiscal philatelic material. For further details contact Dr. K. X. Robbins, 5055 Seminary Road, Suite 108, Alexandria, Virginia

22311, USA, or Mr. R. W. Dillaway at the aforementioned museum.

‘Te On 27 May 1989 there will be a seminar entitled ‘“‘Beitrage zur Indischen Numismatik”’ (contributions to Indian Numismatics) at “‘Club 72”, Prenzlauer Allee 217, Berlin 1055, DDR. The seminar is being organised by the Fachgruppe Numismatik Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg in collaboration with the Arbeitskreis Asiatische Numismatik des Kulturbundes der DDR. The programme is expected to be the following:

Dr. W. F. Paschmann: Coinage of the colonial powers for their Indian territories. - Wagner: The Coinage of selected Indian princely states. Prof. Dr. Sc. J. Kriger: A Chinese issue in competition with the Indian rupee. - Brockmeier: Some introductory thoughts on South Indian foms from c. 200 B.C. till the modern period - the

Dravidian coinage system. - Pinske: On the coinage of the Sultans of Zanzibar & Pemba. TS jin 3g y Joe 3S years. - Neumann: On the geometry of Indian coins in the 19th & 20th centuries. Dr. W. 1. Paschmann: New research findings relating to the Zodiac coins of the Mughal emperor, Jehangir. - Ruske: The Bicentenary coinage of Australia. New & Recent Publications

ia Maratha Mints and Coinage by K. K. Maheshwari and K. W. Wiggins. Published by the Indian Institute of Research in Numismatic Studies, Nasik, 1989. Price US$40 or Indian Rs.350. Paper covers.

This is the second monograph published by the above Institute and the first comprehensive treatise that seeks to cover the known mints and coinage of the Marathas. It deliberately excludes the coinages of the later Maratha states of Gwalior, Indore (both already the subjects of detailed studies), Baroda (yet to be tackled), and the Bhonslas of Nagpur & Orissa (the subject of a forthcoming work by Mr. Kulkarni). The 244 page volume begins with a brief history of the Marathas and a summary of the principal events in their history from 1594 to 1818. This is followed by a general introduction to the Maratha coinage. The catalogue of mints and coins is divided into five sections: Western India, Central India, Northern India, Southern India, and miscellaneous and unattributed coins. In each section the mints are arranged in alphabetical order though there is some grouping of mints on other criteria where this seems appropriate. Coin types known to have been struck at a number of different but currently indistinguishable mints, e.g. the Ankushi Rupee and the Chhatrapati Paisa are treated on a generic basis. Most of the book, however, is devoted to specific mint-places. In each case, relevant historical background is given and the coinage is discussed, though it needs to be pointed out that in a number of cases it is known that a mint existed

but it has not yet been possible to identify the coins. Each coin type and variety is illustrated and great care has been taken to note the many different marks and symbols that occur on the coins. The catalogue is followed by a detailed bibliography, and seven appendices providing, respectively, genealogies of the Marathas, chronology and genealogy of the Peshwas, chronology and genealogy of the Mughal Emperors from Aurangzeb onwards, nomenclature of Maratha coins, legends on Maratha coins, the dating of Maratha coins and an index of 629 marks and symbols appearing on the Maratha coins listed in the book. For each section of the catalogue a map is provided showing the location of the mints. (Authors’ note)

Dr. J. S. Deyell launching the book on Maratha coinage ata function in Bombay in January. Others depicted, from left to right, Mr. K. K. Maheshwari, Dr. R. - Jamkhedkar (Director of Archaeology & Museums, Maharashtra) and Mr. K. W. Wiggins.

A Festschrift Presented to Ibrahim Artuk on the Occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Turkish Numismatic Society. pp viii plus 278, many plates in the text. Published by the TNS, Istanbul 1988. Cloth bound. US$50 post free.

The extended title of the latest publication of the Turkish Numismatic Society aptly describes the contents - 21 short papers on aspects of numismatics in which Ibrahim and Cevriye Artuk have interested themselves over the years. Apart from one on an ‘Abbasid coin of AH282, all the papers deal with subjects of Turkish interest. What is not so obvious from the title is that the book is multilingual and that the papers are mostly given in both Turkish and either English or French. The one exception is a paper in English that is primarily a list of mints and dates and presumably unnecessary to translate into Turkish. While it is sometimes necessary to turn to the original language for full details, most of the essential facts can be gained from the translations.

Roughly two-thirds of the contents cover a wide range of Ottoman subjects. One paper makes a plea for Ottoman numismatists to consider coins in a regional context. Others describe documents from Rumania or the Topkapi Palace archives on countermarked Hungarian coins or a diary of AD 1617 giving much information on Ottoman exchange rates. A number of rare or unpublished coins are described including Ottoman coins from the Yemen and severak papers deal with medals, both military and commemorative. Five papers describe the late Mongol or post-Mongol periods including a useful catalogue of Eretnid coins and a list of late Seljuk and earli IIkhanid Anatolian mint/date combinations, many of which have not previously been suggested.

The papers are accompanied by a short biography of Ibrahim by his wife, Cevdiye, and a list of his numismatic works dating back to 1943.

At $50 the book is not cheap but for anyone seriously interested in the coinage of Anatolia since the 13th century it is an important guide to new sources and coins, unfamiliar to many Western collectors.

Obtainable from the Turkish Numismatic Society via Cuneyt Olcer at PK 101, Tesvikiye, ISTANBUL, Turkey, or from A.H. Baldwin & Sons Ltd at 11 Adelphi Terrace, LONDON WC2N 6BJ. MRB

  1. Chronological Classification of the Wu-Chu System Coinage - Northern Wei and Sui, by Roger Wai San Doo. Paper covers, 80pp with many drawings in text. Chinese text with English abstract and some English headings. Available from Mr. Doo of Hong Kong (ONS no. 963).

The Chronological Classification of the Wu-Chu System Coinage is a systematic study of the longest coinage used in Chinese history. The first appearance of Wu-Chu is in the fifth year of Yuan Shou (reign title) (118B.C.) of the Emperor Wu Ti of Western Han. It has then been circulated throughout the succeeding dynasties until the end of the Sui Dynasty (618AD) For almost 736 years, the Wu-Chu System Coinage went through a lot of changes, both in style and weight. The main types and subtypes were evolved during this long period, therefore a systematic classification is difficult and requires a lot of archaeological evidence to support the attributions.

The Northern Dynasties and Sui are part of the study of the Wu-Chu System. It has been known in the past that due to lack of information, classification is obviously extremely difficult. Fortunately, recent archeological excavations have provided substantial evidence for this work.

The coins are described in sequence of successive dynasties. Details and methods of classification are also given. The author has prepared as many rubbings of the coins as possible for comparison purposes. Careful study of the coins will indicate the differences and their characteristics which then can be attributed to the proper dynasty. Sasanian coins are also mentioned briefly in the paper as they are one of the major circulating coins used in the Western District of China during the Northern Chu Dynasty, and persisting until the Tang and Sung Dynasties. (Author’s note)

  1. Spink’s Numismatic Circular for February 1989 contained two articles of interest to ONS members: ‘“‘The Gondopharid Countermark”’ by R. C. Senior and ‘‘Sino-Dutch Numismatic Relationships (chop & be chopped)” by Dr. T. D. Yih. This latter item features Dutch coins with Chinese chop-marks, Chinese coins with VOC countermarks, and Chinese cash with Chinese(?) chop marks. The March edition of the Circular also contains two articles of interest: ‘"”The Posthumous Arab-Sasanian coinage of Khurshid in Tabaristan”’ by H. M. Malek and details of two Indo-Scythic hoards by R. C. Senior.

Numismatics International, vol. 23 numbers 2 and 3 (February & March 1989) contain parts III and IV of R. J. Hebert’s item entitled ‘“‘A Donation of Dies’’. Part III illustrates five more unofficial dies of the Mughals and Native States. The unofficial nature is enhanced by the fact that four out of the five transcriptions of the legends on the dies have been transposed in the text! Part IV deals with six dies.

  1. The Coin Study Circle (Calcutta) has released its fifth booklet, entitled ‘Copper Coins of the Suri Dynasty’’. Its previously published Guide to the Mughal Coinage has been revised and enlarged by Mr. Kulkarni. The next booklet, on the Post-Gupta coinages of Bengal by Dr. B. N. Mukherjee is due for release in March. The Circle has also recently published its latest edition of Mudra.

World Coin News for 28 March 1989 (vol. 16 no. 13) contains an item by John G. Humphris about Mehmet Ali, the founder of modern Egypt and an interview with Steve Album about the sale of his Islamic coin collection to the Karl Eberhards University, Tiibingen, West Germany. The same issue also mentions a 96 page illustrated guidebook (in Chinese) to the struck copper coins of Sinkiang, by Ma Tak Wo. Further information on this can be obtained from the author at…

A New Variety of Parthian Drachm by Fred B. Shore

An unusual and unrecorded Parthian drachm has come into my possession. The obverse is a typical portrait of Osroes II. The reverse, however, consists of three lines of legend, with no other design, and without the seated archer typical of the series. “Ww \('=\)

NGF

The rightmost portion of the three lines of legend is garbled and runs off the flan. However the part that is present provides enough information to identify the topmost two lines. The top line in Parthian corresponds to the top line of Sellwood type 85 which translates to ‘King Osroes’. The second line in garbled Greek is similar to the second top line of Sellwood 85. The third line in garbled Greek is impossible to identify with any certainty. However it may represent DIKAIOV a typical bottom line on Parthian drachms.

The genuineness of the piece is in my opinion beyond question. It has indications that it is struck, and the style and lettering are typical for the period.

The reverse shows traces of lines running horizontally, and also traces of an undertype. Under magnification, it is clear that the lines are raised. These facts seem to indicate that the die had been scraped off and reengraved.

The question remains, why would a Parthian die-cutter erase a typical reverse die and substitute a design which omits the single most distinctive feature of the Parthian drachms, the seated archer, the representation of the founder of the dynasty, Arsaces I. Several theories are possible; none emerges as the most likely:

  1. The die was produced as the fall of Osroes II was imminent causing the die-cutter to be rushed. 2. The lettering on this coin appears to be larger than on typical examples of Osroes II drachms. It is possible that the engraver realized in the middle of the project that he did not have enough space for the archer and therefore eliminated it. (Stranger things have happened in Oriental numismatics). 3. The coin was minted by a new prince, not anArsacid, who needed a coinage similar enough to existing money to be accepted, but different enough to show a change in rule.

Anonymous Sa’adian dirhem struck in Tilimsan in 957H by Tawfiq Ibrahim

Tilimsan 957H. 0.8 gr., 12 x 14mm max. (illustration x 1.5)

Even though this apparently unpublished coin is anonymous it is readily identifiable by its type and date. If we briefly follow the account given by al-Nasiri,! the Sa’adian ruler Muhammad al-Shaykh after conquering Fas from the Wattasids in 956112 immediately dispatched a large expedition into the Maghrib al-Awsat in an attempt to forestall the threatening Ottoman advances. According to this same source it was only after a long siege of nine months that Tilimsan capitulated to the Sa’adians on the fourth month of 957H. The present coin is the palpable evidence of this event. Though this expedition managed to reach Wadi Shalif it had no lasting effect as the Ottomans soon dislodged the Sa’adians from Tilimsan. A commander of this expedition was Muhammad al-Shaykh’s favourite son al-Harran who was to lose his life in the midst of these events. A second and last attempt by al-Shaykh to re-capture Tilimsan proved a failure for though his troops did manage to enter the city they were unable to dislodge the Turks from its citadel. In spite of the apparent failure of these campaigns they were probably instrumental in the consolidation of the Sa’adian state and in any case Tilimsan would hereafter remain the western limit of Ottoman expansion.

  1. AF Nasiri, Ahmad b. Khalid, Kitab al-Istiqsa’li Akhbar Dawal al-Maghrib, al-Aqsa - Casablanca 1955, vol. V, p.25. 2. See Henry Lavoix, Catalogue des Monnaies Musulmanes de la Bibliotheque Nationale, Espagne et Afrique, Paris 1981, no.1042 (pp.479-500) for a coin struck in Fas in this year and attributed to Muhammad al-Shaykh. To be noted is the evident similarity with the above coin. Of special importance is the Sa’adian innovation of reintroducing the date on their coinage, a characteristic that had been absent from Morrocan minting practices since the fall of the Almoravides some four centuries prior. A Gold Tanka of Shams-ud-din ‘Adil Shah of Madura

Little is known about the Sultans of Madura. The area in Southern India which they ruled for a mere 45 years or so had formerly been part of the kingdom of the Pandyas. The fratricidal war between two Pandyan brothers contending for the throne led to the invasion of the city by the forces of the Dehli Sultan ‘Ala-ud-din Muhammad Khilji. The Dehli army, under Malik Kafur, had been campaigning successfully in the Deccan and elsewhere and the occupation of Madura was the culmination of their activities, in AH 710 (AD 1310-11). Malik Kafur soon returned to Dehli laden with booty. He may have left a garrison in Madura but the relationship between that distant part of India and Dehli in the years that followed is unclear. Another invasion of the south took place during the reign of the next Dehli Sultan, Qutb-ud-din Mubarak, under Khusru Khan. But it was during the first part of the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlug (AH 725-52, AD 1325-51) that Muslim rule in Madura seems to have been at its strongest. Around AH 735 (AD 1334), the governor of Madura declared his independence under the title Jalal-ud-din Ahsan Shah. He was succeeded during the next few decades by a number of mostly fairly obscure rulers until the year 779 or shortly afterwards when the Muslims were defeated by the rising power of Vijayanagara.

There is no corpus of the coins of the Sultans of Madura. C. J. Rodgers published 36 coins in JASB, vol. LXIV; Professor E. Hultzsch published a paper entitled The Coinage of the Sultans of Madura in JRAS, 1909; the supplement to volume II of the catalogue of coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (Sultans of Dehli & their contemporaries, Dehli 1939), lists 53 coins of the Sultans of Madura and a few other articles publish one or more coins. Most of the coins are copper or billon; some silver coins of Ahsan Shah weighing just over 3 grams are known, and two or three gold coins. One of the latter is an exceptional specimen that was once in the collection of H. Nelson Wright, and subsequently acquired by the British Museum. It was published by J. Allan in the Numismatic Chronicle, XIV (5th ser.) but wrongly attributed to Ibrahim ‘Adil Shah of Bijapur. This attribution was corrected by C. R. Singhal in his Bibliography of Indian Coins, part II (Bombay 1952) to Shams-ud-din ‘Adil Shah of Madura.

Though this coin is already published, its existence is probably unknown to most students of Indian numismatics and thus with the kind permission of the trustees of the British Museun,, it is illustrated and described below.

Gold tanka of Shams-ud-din ‘Adil Shah. Date: AH 748. Weight 13.67 g. Obverse Reverse

S64) ابو‎

ple! تاطلسلا‎ any sli عاد‎ تاطلسلا ميركل شمس الد نيا و‎ نيدلا‎

aKle سنم كلد‎ Kal ضب هزة‎

نامت 3 نيعبرا 3 امعبس نه‎

As-Sultan Al-halim Abu-] Muzaffar Al-karim Shams-ud-dunya wa ud-din ‘Adil Shah khulidat mulka hu As-Sultan zuriba hazihi as-Sikka sanah thaman wa arba’in wa seba’mayat

The mild and generous Sultan Father of the conqueror Shams-ud-dunya wa ud-din ‘Adil Shah (sun of the world & the faith) the Sultan May his kingdom endure forever This coin was struck in the year 748

The decorative nature of the obverse design and the heavy weight may indicate that this coin was struck on the occasion of the Sultan’s coronation. As far as I know the expression al-halim al-karim is not otherwise found on Indian coins and seems to be a particularly personal description of the Sultan. S.L.G.

A Pattern Five Kori Piece of Nawanagar by K. W. Wiggins

The coin illustrated below recently came to notice and is worthy of publication. It is a silver piece 31mm in diameter (the photograph is somewhat enlarged), the weight is just over 13 grams. Obverse: within a circle within an ornamental floral border

20 1 Malika span Ala Majama Queen Bact oan Victoria

Reverse: Within a circle - - Matearais

(\UIA ATT

Dhiraj Jam xl 20 Sri 7 Vibhaji ع رت‎ Panch kori Floral decoration each side above ITA AATAITA Sansthan Nawanagar below Hart w%v3e Sambat 1930

The coin is engraved in the style of the five kori pieces of Kutch and may even have been struck at the mint at Bhuj. The Samvat date is the equivalent of AD 1873.

The published coins of Nawanagar do not bear the name of Queen Victoria but only the name of the Jam Sahib. The above described coin was apparently an attempt to introduce a coinage with the name of Her Majesty as was done in other

Princely States after 1858. For some reason the issue was never proceeded with.

Roman influence on the coins of Yajnasri Satakarni by Dilip Shah

It is now known that Rome had firm trade relations with India during the Satavahana period. Roman ships full of amphoras of wine and other luxury materials visited the western ports of India during the Ist to 3rd centuries A.D. Spices, scented oil, sandal wood, ivory, silk, minerals and animals were exported from India, while the balance of payment was made by the Roman merchants by way of Roman aurei, a large number of which have been discovered from Indian soil.

A lead coin of Gautamiputra Yajnasri Satakarni from the British Museum depicts a fleet of ships.! This is very much indicative of the influence of Indo-Roman trade, though some scholars argue that it only tells about maritime activity. Now,

a silver coin of the same ruler has turned up displaying an example of Roman influence. The portrait of the King is very different from that of his previously known coins. On the latter, the portrait shows curly hair with a flower on the forehead,”

but the present coin shows straight long hair and no flower. It reminds me of the denarius of Augustus Caesar. It is very likely that the mint masters of Yajnasri Satakarni took inspiration from Roman coins that passed through their hands and thus

introduced this new hair-style for their King. Yajnasri Satakarni ruled from 174 to 203 A.D. and it is possible that his coins were influenced by Roman coins of the Ist and 2nd centuries A.D.

The coin weighs 1.9 grams, measures 16.5mm and reads: Obv: Around the bust, portion of the legend ‘‘Rano Gotamiputasa Siri Yana Satakanisa”’ Rev: Around six arched hill and Ujjain symbol, portion of the legend ‘"”Arahanaku Gotamimakanaku hiru Yana Hatakaniku”

  1. Journal of the Numismatic Society of India, vol. XVVI, p.47. 2. Numismatic Digest, vol. V, part II, p.16.

A Japanese Multiple Cash - A Reply by Stephen R. Lowell

Nicholas Rhodes illustrated two rare Japanese pattern multiple cash coins in Newsletter 112, and asked if anyone could

shed more light on their origins. These pieces are mentioned in several Japanese works, so I thought that readers might be interested in the following notes.

The first coin is inscribed ‘‘Juntaku Tsuho”. “‘Juntaku” may be translated as “mountain stream with much water’, but no one knows why the characters were chosed, and they are not known to have any historical significance. Yabe Kurakichi, in his book “Kosen to Shihei” ( 624 ) (Kin’en-sha, Tokyo, 2nd printing, Aug. 1973) mentions it briefly on p. 261. He said that little is known about it, but the “‘¢ “ on the reverse seems to indicate that it was meant to circulate within the Imperial Household, but no documentary evidence exists to support this theory. Most probably it was a pattern for the following piece, the ‘‘Keio Tsuho’’.

The ‘Keio Tsuho” is known in 12 varieties, and is illustrated in rather more books. Most pieces are of the same denomination, 200 Mon (1 Shu = 400 Mon), but one is marked “‘value 50” and another “6 momme of silver”. The character “kyo” on the reverse seems to indicate casting in Kyoto, but varieties exist with privy marks resembling those used by the kinza and the ginza, the gold and silver mints, located in Edo. These pieces may, therefore, have been cast in both Kyoto and Edo.

Both pieces are considered official central government patterns issued during the rather turbulent period that marked the transition to modern coinage. They are not well known, and are of great rarity. Notes on the Chinese Military Pisciform Tally doubtfully ascribed to the Liao Dynasty by F. A. Turk

In Newsletter no. 116 Kenneth MacKenzie has an interesting note on this piece which has, of course, been figured in several publications both Eastern and Western. Since he mentions the specimen which I have in my collection and because [ have done more work on this in recent years - work which has clarified, I think, much that was obscure - it seems useful to take up this matter here, once again.

First, I must point out that the piece in my collection has obscurities in the inscription in the same way that Mr. MacKenzie’s specimen has. However, I have been fortunate in recently acquiring a copy of the very rare Kyoto reprint of 1958 of Lo Chenyii’s “Li tai fu pai t’u lu’”’,! the Chinese original edition being published in 1926 according to the preface.” The work is one entirely on tallies and figures several very rare forms, including a few in gold. Some 25 pisciform tallies are figured, one of which has reference in its inscription to tallies of torn silk which evidently were also used in past times by the Chinese. Among these tallies is the subject of the present note giving wholly clarified characters particularly the crucial sixth.

Neither Mr. MacKenzie nor myself had clearly defined inscriptions to study. As with his so with mine, the sixth character on the right is especially obscure. However, independently, both he and I made roughly the same translation of the text, namely: “Tso: wu wei chiang chuan’’, ‘‘Left: General Wu Wei respectfully transmits this tally”. This is identical with that given by Arthur Braddan Coole in vol. 5 of his ‘Encyclopaedia of Chinese Coins’’ (Massachusetts, 1976), p.565. Nevertheless,

I now believe we may all be in error. For various reasons I have restudied the matter; not the least of these reasons being that the mysterious “General Wu Wei’’? who left scattered around so many tallies seems nowhere to be identified in the dynastic histories. Again, the corresponding half, ‘“‘Right’’, seems non-existent for some tallies and in the others is rare. Perhaps still more important is the fact that other and more likely readings of some of the characters are possible and, as a whole, more probable. Thus, the first character ‘‘Tso’‘4 (Left) can also mean ‘“‘Deputy”; ‘“‘Wu” was a commonly used term in earlier times for “‘Military’’ and “‘Wei’’ is the name that was given to the first rank of the great stations guarding the line of transportation used for sending “tribute rice” to the capital. Each ‘wei’ had a heavy military garrison and from this garrison a guard was continually recruited to accompany the junks or trains of pack animals carrying the rice. With this in mind we can now re-translate the whole as “‘The Deputy” (or ‘adjutant’ without prejudice to its other meaning ‘“‘left”) of the garrison of the ‘wei’ respectfully transmits this tally’. Another minor puzzle still exists in the character ‘“‘Feng” (top left) here translated ‘respectfully’. The character can also mean “‘wear at the girdle”’ and, like Mr. MacKenzie’s specimen and all others, mine too has a hole at the top for suspension. In 1952 in the course of some correspondence which I had on the subject of animals in Chinese art with the late Arthur de Carle Sowerby (then in Washington, U.S.A. where he had published a book on this theme) he told me that he had more than once seen metal fish used as girdle toggles - artefacts that correspond to the Japanese netsuke. Perhaps also the character ‘Feng’ can therefore possibly be read as a command? In a general way a detailed study of the shape and decoration of this piece bears out the reading I have suggested above. The fish, from the way the scales are depicted, is a carp and this species is perhaps the commonest of the edible fishes in China. Because of its scales, it had reference to the military in former times in China as it did more recently in Japan. It is also a symbol of good augury since yii,® a fish, is a homophone of yii,© abundance. In the left-hand top corner, by the mouth, is the ancient rice or millet seed pattern of equally spaced dots denoting an abundance of grains. The peculiar eye of the fish is formed by a sign which is almost identical with the birds on some Chou bronzes and with that found on the Honan oracle bones where it probably represents a goose or duck, both much eaten in China. The dorsal part of the head is composed of a curious object which may be no more than the heavy line used in paintings for this part of the carp, but which also seems to resemble a shoot of rice. Thus the main cereals as well as fish and bird are represented in the design.

One other matter may still be relevant. The term ‘chun’ is unusual but is part of the phrase ‘chun men’? used in the epistolary style of composition for the General-in-Chief or Provincial Commander-in-Chief (T’i Tu). Incidentally, if the characters ‘wu wei’ were interchanged and read ‘wei wu’ we should have the usual term for a garrison. That they are written ‘wu wei’ substantiates the reading here offered.

Taken all in all there seems little or no evidence in all of this to date this piece to the Liao Dynasty except that the Khitan Tartars do appear to have given China several matters of military organization. Moreover, a careful study of the script does not seem to bear out the identification of it as being in the Li Shu style. It is rather to be considered a fairly well developed form of the K’ai-shu with a couple of the characteristics of the Su-t’i tzu (unorthodox character script) which was adopted from 1000 AD onwards. I see no reason in all this to date it earlier than the 17th/18th centuries and indeed it could be, but probably was not, early 19th century.

The purpose of this tally therefore was to transmit the substantiation of all actions at the ‘wei’ to the Provincial Commander-in-Chief and for this they had to be and were, numerous. Doubtless they served as amulets and toggles in later days,

a secondary use not uncommonly found with many objects. Perhaps this note will show that Western scholars could profitably interest themselves in this department of Chinese numismatics in the same way that the Chinese themselves have done for gen- erations.

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  1. Lo Chen-yu was born in 1866 in Shengyu in Chekiang province. A member of a once wealthy family, he seems to have devoted his entire life to numismatics and at one time owned an important collection of his own and visited various other private and public collections in China. He published nearly a hundred books and pamphlets on numismatics most of which are now unknown to Western, as probably to Chinese, numismatists. Even the Kyoto reprint of this book might have been in an extremely small edition. An unsigned slip inside my copy had the inscription in pencil ‘‘no.19 of 50”. If this indeed refers to the size of the edition then probably not more than 150 copies in both editions together were ever produced. Coole, A.B. in his “Encyclopaedia of Chinese Coins” vol.1, Kansas 1967, gives a photograph of Lo Chen-yu. He appears as a very schalarly-looking man with spectacles, dressed in a scholar’s ceremonial gown and a fur hat. It is a pity that a collected edition of all his works could not be published.

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