The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c4.2

c4.2

The need for a series of Corpuses of Indian Coins, covering their history from the earliest times to the present day, has been keenly felt for some years. There is a dearth of books for study and reference in the field of Indian Numismatics at present. The Catalogues of Indian Coins in the British Museum, London, of the Coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, the Punjab Museum, Lahore, the Provincial (now State) Museum, Lucknow, and Cunningham's Monographs on the Coins of Ancient India, Medieval India, the Indo-Scythians, and the Later Indo-Scythians are out of print for a long time. Journals of the Royal Asiatic Society, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Numismatic Chronicle, Numismatic Supplements, etc. where some other studies on Indian Coins had been published, are not easily procurable. Further, though the above publications are good, they have become out of date long ago owing to the publication of fresh and important material during the last fifty years or so. Time has now come, not for the publication of revised editions of the above works and studies, but of the Corpuses of Coins of the different periods and dynasties, which will take a stock of the published works, utilise all the material in the different Museums in India and abroad, take note of the later discoveries of important coins and sum up our knowledge of the subject, correcting views no longer tenable and emphasining new and important aspects, disclosed by fresh discoveries and studies. These Corpuses should of course illustrate every variety of every type issued by a king, a feudatory or a republic. The lover of art should find these volumes attractive and should feel it an artistic feast to run over their plates. With these volumes on his table, the research worker should not normally feel the need of consulting many other works.