THE CURRENCIES OF THE HINDU STATES OF RAJPUTANA

The author has made a good attempt to unearth ?The Currencies of the Hindu States of Rajputana?. In his leisure time, during the years spent on duty at the Courts of Udaipur and Bikaner, he devoted his attention to the subject of the coinage in the Native States of Rajputana. The information (derived from personal observation, from the study of his unique collection of coins of the Province, from correspondence with brotherofficers serving under the Indian Foreign Office, and with many friends among the Princes and the officials at their Courts),he has during his furlough embodied into the following work, which he now venture to offer to Government as, perhaps, a more perfect representation of the questions involved than is at present possessed, and in the hope that a further consideration of the points to which he has endeavoured to call attention may be productive of good to the inhabitants of the large tract of country, the circulating mediums of which are here considered. He may add that the country in which the coins here treated of are circulating, has an area of about 126,000 square miles. The amount of local coin circulating in the Rajput States is very large, and is, in most cases, the collection of a century or longer. He has been unable to discover that at present any systems exist for the recall of light coin. In many States coins of great age are still accepted in payment. The coins of the Native States are fashioned in a rude way with the hammer and anvil, and have plain, unmilled edges. Stamping is carried out in a similarly rough manner ? one workman holding the piece of metal between the two dies, whilst a second, with a blow from a heavy hammer, completes the coin. With very few exceptions, the coins bear only portions of the inscriptions carried by the dies. The book is the extensive study and research of the currencies of the Hindu States of Rajputana. It is illustrated by a Map and by Twelve Plates of Coins after drawings made by the author from specimens in his collection.