The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

BILINGUAL COINS OF BUKHARA. 117
M. Lerch had the advantage of discovering among the
Oriental MSS. within his reach a notice of the origin of
this class of money though the information contributed
bears more upon the fiscal aspect of the question, than on
the historical details, which would have proved of greater
general interest. 1 The coins themselves, however,
as illus-
trated by prior and subsequent issues, do much to tell
their own tale, and the legends, as now interpreted, open
out a large and unexplored field of ethnographical and
palaeographical inquiry.
The first duty of a Numismatist is to endeavour to trace
the prototype of the coins he has to describe. In the
present case this task is easy, and the result assuring.
The practice obtaining among the Sassanian kings which
led them to select, on their accession, the typical form of
Crown and its accessories by which their conventional
portraits and the impress on their money might be distinctly
recognized, enables us to pronounce, at once, and
without reference to the formal associate legend, from
whose mints any given specimen was issued. The lead-
1 "II nous dit, que le premier prince qui introduisit le monnayage d' argent a
Boukhara fut le Boufchdr Khoudut K&na, lil
[CJ^ Jo-jUsT jl /*^]> ^
regna 30 ans. De son temps le commerce de la toile et du froment fut trfcs-anime
a Boukhara. On lui soumit, que dans d'autres pays on frappait de la monnaie
d' argent. Alors il donna 1'ordre de f rapper de la monnaie d' argent fin aussi a,
Boukhara
j -
Ce fut du temps du Khaliphe Abou-Bekr" (A.H. 11, A.D. 632). The Persian
text goes on to
say, that this coinage was continued unaltered up to the time of
Harun al Rashid (A.H. 170, A.D. 786), when the inhabitants applied to his
newly-appointed Governor of Khorasan, by name Ghifrif
i> for a
(t Joe),
reduction of the high standard of these coins, in order to meet the debased
money current in the proximate province of Khwarism (Khiva). This new
issue, which retained all the old numismatic forms and devices, is said to have
been of
composed
a curious mixture of six different metals, which combination,
however, had the unpopular property of speedily losing its pristine brightness.
These new pieces received the name of the presiding Governor and were esti-
mated, in the local markets, to be of the value of su; to the pure silver dirhains
previously current.