Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/719

INDIA, CHINA.] N U.M N U -N 661 types are royal portraits and Buddhist emblems, &c., of no great interest. Quite as early as the invasion of Alexander, if not earlier, is a most curious class of square silver and bronze coins, punch -marked with a variety of devices, which circulated in northern India, and probably originated the square bronze coinage of the Greco-Indian kings. The Arabs in the first days of conquest had subdued Sind, and founded an independent state on the banks of the Indus ; but it is hard to subdue India from this direction, and the strangers decayed and disappeared. The Pathan kings came of the Ghuri stock which rose on the ruins of the empire of Ghazneh. Mohammad ibn Sam made Delhi his capital, and here he and his successors, Pathans or slave-kings, ruled in great splendour, latterly rivalled by a line of Pathans of Bengal. Of the Pathans of Delhi we have an abundant coinage, the principal pieces being the gold mohur of about 168 grains, and the silver rupee of about the same weight, besides many pieces of bronze, and at one period of base metal. The coins are large and thick, with the profession of Islam or the style of the caliph on one side, on the other the name and titles of the reigning king. Mohammad ibn Taghlak struck coins with a great variety of in scriptions, some in the name of the shadowy Abbasid caliphs of Egypt, whose successors were for a time similarly honoured by later sovereigns. Towards the close of the rule of the Pathans several dynasties arose in central and southern India and struck similar money, the kings of Guzerat, of Malwa, and of the Deccan. The Pathan lines closed with Sher Shah, an Afghan, the last ruler of Bengal. Babar, the Turki, of the family of Timur, seeking a king dom, adventured on the conquest of Hindustan ; and after long wars with Sher Shah, carried on by Babar s son Humayun, the famous Shah Akbar, grandson of the invader, was at length peaceably settled on the throne of Delhi, and he and his successors, the so-called Moguls of Delhi, practically subdued the whole of India. They retained the existing standard, but used the Arabic and Persian languages like the shahs of Persia. Akbar (1556) issued a splendid coinage in gold and silver, far more elegant than that of the Pathans, but the money of his son, Jahangir, is still more remarkable. He issued the famous zodiacal mohurs and rupees, as well as those astonishing Bacchanalian mohurs on which he is represented holding the wine- cup. Scarcely less strange is the money of the beautiful queen NYir- Jahan. Under Shah Jahan there is a visible falling away in the merit of the coins, and an ordinary modern style is reached in the reign of Aurungzeb. To the close of the rule of Shah Alam, the last Mogul who actually reigned, gold and silver money is abundant. Latterly, native states coin with Arabic and also with Sanskrit inscriptions. The most important are the kings of Oude, the ni/ams of the Deccan, and the kings of Mysore, besides the maha- rnjas of Indore and the kings of Nepal. The coinage of Tipu Sultan (Tippu Sahib) is extremely curious from his innovations in the calendar. Besides these there are a multitude of small states. Most of the Indian princes acknowledged the emperor of Delhi, but some struck independently. At last the English coinage of India has swept away nearly all these moneys, though some native states still issue their own, while those under English protection occasionally acknowledge on their coins the supremacy of the queen as empress. It is not yet possible to give a full summary of the strange coinages of China and the farther East, the published researches having been generally uncritical and unsupported by the examination of native literary sources. Thus only some general facts may be safely stated. The money of China, more certainly than the square punch- marked coinage of India, may claim an origin independent of the Lyclian and Greek issues. The oldest specimens may be assigned to the 6th century before our era, a time at which the existing coins of other nations could scarcely have been known in the far East ; nor is there any connexion in form, type, or metal with the other currencies. Like nearly all subsequent Chinese money, the earliest is of bronze and cast. The shapes of the coins are most eccentric, representing knives, and, in De la Couperie s opinion, mining-tools. To these succeed the well-known round pieces with a square hole in the centre for the purpose of stringing them together, the coins to which the name "cash" is applied by Europeans. The value of these coins depended on the weight, which is inscribed upon them. We must, however, bear in mind that we have frequently to deal with a merely conventional weight and value due to financial schemes. Thus the inscription always records official value, but not always true weight or true value. There is no type whatever, but always an inscription on one or both sides. The" occurrence of an occasional symbol cannot be held to be a deviation from this rule. The main inscription is usually placed opposite the four sides of the central square on the obverse. As a rule this inscription at its fullest gives the emperor s official name during life, and the value of the coin and an indication of its authoritative exactness. When a reverse inscription is introduced, it gives the value of the coin The inscriptions are in Chinese characters of different kinds, and under the present dynasty Manchu has also been employed. Some coins bear indications of mints. The most interesting Chinese coins are those of small rival dynasties and of rebels, the study of which is important for the elucidation of the obscurities of the history of the country. The Chinese medals are talismans, usually larger than the coins, and bear both subjects and inscriptions. They are distributed by Taouist and Buddhist priests of temples. The money of Corea and Annam is similar to that of China, and Chinese coins were long the currency of Java, which more recently has issued the money of its Mohammedan princes. The empire of Japan shows in its coinage that Chinese source Japan, modified by the influence of native independence which marks all its institutions. Thus, while the copper currency closely resembles that of China, there is also a gold and silver coinage. The gold consists of plates of the form of a flattened oval with large inscrip tions in indian ink painted on the surface, and small contermarks punched into it. The "cobang," which is the largest coin, was chiefly used for presents by the Japanese princes. Its intrinsic value is about 25. There are several lesser denominations in gold, and a series of silver pieces, the larger, ingots, used as presents to in feriors, and the smaller, which are sometimes of a long rectangular shape, more properly a silver currency. There are also temple medals of a magical character like those already noticed as cast in China. BIBUOORAPHY. Periodicals: Numismatic Chronicle, London; Zeitschrift fiir Numismatik, Berlin; Numismatische Zeitschrift, Vienna; Revue Numismatique, Paris. Greek. General : Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum ; Sestini, Classes Gener ates ; De Dominicis, Repertorio Numismatico ; Rasche, Lexicon ; Leake, Numis- mata Hellenica; Lenorraant, La Monnaie dans I Antiquite; Mionnet, Descrip tion de MedaAlles Antiques Grecques et Romaines ; Catalogue of Greek Coins in the Ilritish Museum, by B. 8. Poole, editor, B. V. Head, and Professor Percy Gardner [Italy, Sicily, Thrace, Macedon, Thessaly to Epirus, Locri to Euboea, Seleucid kings, Ptolemies, in progress] ; B. V. Head, Guide to Coins of Ancients; P. Gardner, Types of Greek Coins ; Kenner, Stift St Florian ; Imhoof Blurner, Monnaies Grecques. Metrology: Hultsch, Gr. u. Rom. Metrologie; Brandis, Milnz- Mass- und Geivichtswesen ; B. V. Head, papers in Num. Chron. ; Michael Soutzo, "Systemes Monetaires de 1 Asie Mineure et de la Grece," in Rev. Rou- maine d Archeologie, &c., Bucharest, 1883. Spain : Heiss, Description generals des Monnaies antiques de I Kspagne ; Delgado, "Nuevo Metodo de Clasificacio n de las Medallas autonomas de Espafia," in Memorial Numismatico ; Zobel de Zangroniz, Kstudio historico de la Moneda antiqua Espanola. Gaul : Duchalais, Description des Medailles Gauloises ; De la Saussaye, Numismatique de la Gaule Xarbonnaixe ; Hucher, L Art Gaulois ; De Saulcy, in Revue Numismatique. Britain: J. Evans, British Coins. Italy : Carelli, Kumorum Ital. Vet. Tab. CCIL, ed. Cavedonins, Leips., 1850 ; Sambon, La Presqu ile italique ; Millingen, various papers. Greece : Beule, La Monnaie d Athenes ; Hon. L. Warren, Greek Federal Coinage ; L. Miiller, Numismatique d Alexandre le Grand. Asia Minor : Waddington, Voyage en Asie Mineure; Id., Melanges; Pinder, L eber die Cisto- phoren; B. V. Head, "Coinage of Lydia and Persia," "Syracuse," "Bceotia," " Ephesus," in Numismata Orientalia; P, Gardner, "Samos," ibid.; Due de Luynes, Satrapies; Id., Numismatique et Inscriptions Cypriotes. Asia: Six, "Monnaies pheniciennes," in Num. Chron., 1877; De Saulcy, Numismatique de la Terre Sainte; F. Madden, "Jewish Coinage," in Numismata Orientalia. Africa: Zoega, Numi ^Egyptii Imperatorii ; L. Miiller, Numismatique de I ancienne Afrique. Roman. Mommsen, Hist, de la Mon. Rom., Fr. trans by De Blacas and De Witte; Cohen, Medailles de la Republique romaine; Id., Medailles del Empire; D Ailly, La Monnaie romaine; Frohner, Medallions de V Empire; H. Grueber, Catalogue of Roman Medallions in the British Mriseum ; De Witte, Empereurs des Gaules. Mediaeval and Modern. Lelewel, Numismatique clu Moyen Age ; C. F. Keary, Coinage of Western Europe from Honorius to Charlemagne. Spain : Heiss, Mon- na ies des Rois Wixigoths ; Id., Monedas hispano-Christianas ; Campaner y Fuertes, Niimismatica Balear. France : Gariel, Monnaies Carolingiennes ; Hoffmann, Monnaies royalesde France ; De Saulcy, Recueil de Documents relatifs a I Histoire des Monnaies depuis I hilippe II. ; Poey d Avant, Monnaies feodales; Tresir de Numismatique. England, &c. : Hawkins, Silver Coins of England (2d ed. by R. Kenyonl ; Ken yon, Gold Coins of England ; Hildebrand, Anglo-Sachsiske Mynt, 2d eu., 1881 ; De Saulcy, Histoire numismatique de Henri V. et Henri VI. d Angleterrc ; Ruding, Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain, 3d ed. ; Cochran- Patrick, Records of the Coinage of Scotland ; .Aquilla Smith, various papers on Irish coinage. Holland: Van der Chijs, Verhandelingen, uitgegeven door Teyler s Tweede Genootschap. Switzerland : Von Haller, Schu eizerisches Miim- uiid Medaillen-Cabintt; R. S. Poole, Catalogue of Swiss Coins in the South Ken sington Museum. Italy: Friedlander, Italidnische Schaumiinzen; Heiss, Me- dailleurs de la Renaissance ; Arinand, Medailleurs Jtaliens, 2d ed. Germany: Fonrobertsche Sammlu ng. Oriental. P. Gardner, "The Parthian Coinage," in Numismata Orientalia; De Longperier, Les Medailles des Rots Perses de la Dynastie Sassanide ; Soret, "Numismatique inusulmane," and other papers chiefly in the Revue de Numis matique Beige ; Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the British Museum, by Stanley Lane-Poole, ed. R. S. Poole. vols. i.-viii.; Fraehn, Recensio Num. Muhammedan- orum; Tiesenhausen, Monnaies des Khalifes orientaux (in Russian); Codera y Zaidin, Numismatica Arabo-espanola,; Thomas, Chronicles of the Pathans, and various papers ; Rhys Davids, Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon. Notwithstanding the general books covering many sections for which no special works are indicated, it will be felt that this list is very deficient. This is partly due to the multitude of essays in various periodicals, but mainly to the neglect of certain branches of the subject and to the want of full catalogv.es of the great collections of Europe. (R. S. P.) NUMMULITE. See FORAMINIFERA, vol. ix. p. 380. NUN. See MONACHISM, vol. xvi. p. .698. NUNCIO, or NUNTIUS APOSTOLICUS. See LEGATE, vol. xiv. p. 412. NUNEATON, a market-town of Warwickshire, England, is situated near the Leicestershire border, on a branch of the river Anker, on the Coventry Canal, and on three railway lines, 97 miles north-west of London, and 22 east