The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

120 NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.
ventional castellated crown, surmounted by the usual half-
moon and globe.
Pehlvi legend.
mSTS. }
Varahrdn, Malkdn-malkd Bagi Rdm-shatri.
Reverse. The national fire- altar and supporters armed
with spears and wearing crowns similar to that of the
king on the obverse, the half-moon is retained, but the
surmounting globe is omitted. The altar presents this
peculiarity, that the Ormazd's head, usually represented
as rising out of the flames, is in these cases superseded
by the head of the king in his proper person with his
distinctive crown ; while the head itself is placed in the
body of the upper part of the altar, immediately below the
flames, and the legend on the margin seems to indicate
a personal connexion with the monarch in the terms
"Varahran'sFire." 1
Pehlvi j't
Persian
No. 3. Plate VI. Fig. 2 is a coin of Varahrdn Chobin
issued after his accession in 578 A.D., in the first year of his
reign it is inserted in this place to show the contrast of
the style of the imperial head-dress (Num. Chron. Vol.
XIII. p. 240, No. 78) finally adopted by him.
I now come to the special object of this communication.
Oriental numismatists have, for long past, been acquainted
with a coinage reaching India from the north of the
Himalayan range, and of which specimens cropped up
1 See Num. Chron. Vol. V. N.S. p. 50w. Kawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii. p.
271, vol. iv. p. 332. " The Sacred Fire of the Parsis, at TTdwada," Indian
Antiquary, July, 1872, p. 213. Gibbon notices that the Tatar chief, who was
converted by the "
Nestonans, was indulged in the use of a portable altar."
Cap. xlvii.