This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1810 edition. Excerpt: ... point of size, more on an equality with their divine partners than in the casts and plates. What the Arabic 5* can mean on a Hindu coin, No. 16. I cannot say. The four remaining coins, Nos. 18. to 21. of Plate 104. all relate, I think, to Vishicu, his two commonest attributes being, especially on 1Q. and 20. discernible. The originals of 18. and 1Q. are not at this moment within my reach, and are not, I judge, so perfect in their features as some of the others. But little has hitherto been brought to light on the subject of ancient Hindu coinage, and this is no place for such discussion. Bartolomeo says, Voyage, p. 85. that " the oldest Indian coins have no inscription, but only the representation of a cow, an elephant, the lingam, or some deity. Anq.uetil du Perron, however, asserts, that he saw some with writing on them, which, as he pretends, were coined before the period of Vikramaditya; but I never had an opportunity of seeing any of this kind." Until the conquest of Mysore, such coins have not, I believe, been seen by Europeans: except such as were then developed, I never had either an opportunity of seeing any. There can be little doubt of most of the coins represented in Plate 104. (I except, of course, No. 16. put in merely as comparative, ) having been struck as early as the age of Vikramaditya. Our last Plate (105.) still remains unnoticed. It is taken.from a vase, fully as elegant as the plate indicates, of gilt copper, that had been long unclaimed and kicked about at the India house, but is now appropriately ornamenting its museum: its contents may be a quart; and it is certainly a very beautiful specimen of Hindu workmanship, and highly creditable to their skill. Sesha, or Naga, or Vasoky, five-headed, with Vishnu...