Coins In Lucknow Mus. Vol 01 [56 MB - IndianCoins.org

46 ROMAN COINS.ADDENDUM.It isonly since the final proof sheets have been revised that m yattention has been called to a notice by Captain E. H. C. Tufnell,in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science, on the small Romancoins found in the neighbourhood of Madura, which he attributes to alocal mint." What more natural," he" says, than that, as tradeincreased and eastern luxuries became more and more popular with thefair dames of Rome, small settlements of agents should be establishedto collect on the spot the produce of the country and conveyit to theships of their employers on their periodical visits to the ports of call.True no traces of those fine Roman buildings one sees and admires somuch in Europe have been discovered, but could one expect to find, ina small community of mercantile agents settled for a short period in theheart of a foreign and uncivilized nation, any evidence of their existencethat would last as many centuries as have rolled by since Roman merchantstraded in the East, unless it be such coins as I describe, struck speciallyfor the purposes of trade with a pauper population ? Looking then to thefacts that all the coins of this series are well worn as though they hadbeen in regular circulation, that they are of a type differing from thoseusual to the Imperial mints, that they are of so small a value as tobe what one would expect to find in use when dealing with a people aspoor as the early Hindus, that they are found almost exclusively inone locality, that they are constant];/ being found and not occurring ina glut at intermittent periods, surely all these arguments point to thepossible, if not indeed the probable, truth of the theory that they wereof local mintage."I have also recently had an opportunity of examining Mr. Tracy'scoin collection, and have to add to the coins mentioned on page2;i acoin of Anastasius, found in the Tirumangalum taluq, and bearing onthe obverse the inscription D. N. ANASTASIVS. p. p. AVG. and a figure ofthe emperor wearing a tiara and oriental ornaments, and on the reverse,the inscription VICTORIA. AVG. G. G. s. and a winged figure of victory.