Gold Coins in The Collection of The Asiatic Society

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The earliest account of the preservation of coins in the Asiatic Society was given by HH. Wilson in the Asiatic Researches (1832) According to Wilson, an inventory of the collected coins, which was imperfect, was published by Dr. Roer in the Proceedings of 1813. According to this inventory the cabinet of coins consisted of 297 Roman coins, made mostly of copper, 16 Greek coins, and 116 Bactrian, Indo-Scythian, Sassanian and Gupta coins. In 1832, the Government of Bengal donated to the Asiatic Society duplicates of the Mackenzie Collection. In 1844, however, some valuable coins were stolen because the system of security at that time was not perfect. In 1857, Mr. Freeling prepared a descriptive catalogue of the existing coins of the Museum. It is found in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society for 1857 "In order to retrieve the loss (caused by stealing), the Society determined to purchase the well-known and magnificent collection of Colonel Stacy at the reduced sum of Rs. 4000.00. This collection was secured in 1859. (Rajendralala Mitra, Centenary Review of the Asiatic Society 1784-1884, pp. 29-30, Reprint 1986).

Later, coins of the "Delhi-Pathans", "Bengal Pathans", "Bactrians", "Indo-

Scythians", "Guptas and various types of Hindu and Buddhist coins were

Procured, along with Mughal coins, and coins of Malwa, Gujarat, and Jaunpur. (Ibid., p. 30). Some golden Roman coins were obtained from General Cubbon (Ibid., p. 30). However, following Act XVII of 1866, the Asiatic Society transferred its numismatic collection to the Indian Museum. Some remnants of the old collection, made of gold, silver and copper yet remained in the possession of the Asiatic Society.

The Council of the Asiatic Society in May 1997 decided to prepare a detailed catalogue of gold coins with the help of a team of numismatic experts and a qualified photographer Professor Dilip Kumar Biswas, the then President of the Asiatic Society, took the initiative in this matter. In June 1997 the counting and cataloguing work was done under the supervision of Dr. Rita Sharma, Keeper of National Museum, New Delhi, Dr. Pratip Kumar Mitra, Keeper of State Archaeological Museum, West Bengal and Sutapa Sinha, the then Fellow, Centre of Archaeological Studies and Training, Eastern India, West Bengal. They were assisted by Dr. Nilima Sen and Sri Radhika Prasad Banerjee of the Museum of the Asiatic Society Weights and sizes of the gold coins and metal pieces of gold of the Asiatic Society were thoroughly examined by them. Photograph of each gold coin (both sides) was also taken and necessary arrangements were made for the publication of the gold coin catalogue Dr. Rita Sharma was entrusted to compile and edit the catalogue. Unfortunately the tragic death of Dr. Sharma in a train accident paved the way for further delay in the process of completion of the work. Subsequently Dr. Sutapa Sinha, the current Reader in the department of Islamic History and Culture, University of Calcutta, volunteered to complete the remaining work of Dr. Sharma. We shall miss Dr. Sharma very much on the occasion of the publication of the Gold Coins in the collection of the Asiatic Society.

I am very much grateful to the authority of The Asiatic Society, Kolkata for entrusting me with the task of editing this much awaited Catalogue of the Gold Coins preserved in the Society My sincere thanks go to Dr. Ramkrishna Chattopadhyay. Publication Secretary of the Society for taking great initiative in bringing this volume to light and also for providing all necessary support as and when required. I am deeply indebted to Shri Pratip Kumar Mitra, former Keeper of the State Archaeological Museum, West Bengal and one of the members of Gold Coin Verification Team, who has gone through the entire work painstakingly and guided me with his valuable suggestions in spite of his serious illness. I put on record my appreciation for the excellent photograph of the coins taken by Shri Siharan Nandy, Photographer of the State Archaeological Museum, West Bengal which made my task easier for checking and collating the inventory prepared by Late Rita Devi Sharma. Finally, I would like to thank Subir Sarkar, American Institute of Indian Studies, Kolkata for his various criticisms and steady support which I shall always cherish.

The inventory of the Gold Coins of The Asiatic Society was initially prepared by Dr. Rita Devi Sharma, the then Keeper, Epigraphy & Numismatics, the National Museum, New Delhi, way back in 1998 She, however, could not prepare a classified and descriptive catalogue of these coins during her lifetime. Due to her untimely demise in 2008, I have been entrusted by the Society to write an introduction about this collection. Of the one hundred fourteen specimens, a group of seven tiny pieces of gold (Accession no. 2/1) cannot be classified as coins, another four specimens have been marked as metal pieces by the late Dr. Sharma (Accession Nos. 2/21, 2/22, 3/7, 4/21). Further, there are four pieces, which she could not identify (Acc. Nos. 2/2, 2/23, 2/20, 5/18) and she had reservation about identifying two other pieces being coins, which I have grouped under Tokens (Acc. Nos. 5/1,5/2). While writing this introduction, I had to rely solely on the enlarged photographs of the coins provided to me. I did not have the opportunity to cross check or re-examine the coins physically.

We have no specific information regarding the date and mode of acquisition of these coins or whether they belong to any hoard/hoards. It is possible, that these coins might be the leftovers after the cabinet of coins of The Asiatic Society, Bengal was transferred to the Indian Museum in 1866.

On the whole, this group of gold coins is dominated by the coins of the South India, which are commonly known as south Indian pagodas and panams. There are, however, coins of various other categories ranging from a couple of Kushana gold coins of 2-3 century A.D. to Indo-British Star pagoda and Afghan Durrani coins of 18-19 century. Interestingly, this collection includes a number of gold coins of Sultans of Ottoman Empire and of Malay, and a few Venetian Gold Ducats. The South Indian coins in the collection are largely of three denominations, the pagoda (about 3.5 gm), the half pagoda (1.8 gm) and the panam 0.4 gm) of which the last one is the most common type.