Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c6.48.2

c6.48.2

It is no doubt possible to say that these *owls* of Athens, as this type of coinage is called, were carried to India in the course of commerce.¹ Similar *owls* have also been picked up in Southern Arabia Felix.² But none of the *owls* found in the east are of the types known from Athens. In the case of this Semitic country, again, it is not impossible to say that they may have travelled there as a result of commercial intercourse, because they are generally countermarked on the obverse with Sabaean letters or are scratched with a Sabaean monogram on the reverse. When a foreign money for the first time comes into circulation along with the native coinage of a country, all the new specimens are tested, and those, which are found not deficient in weight or quality of metal, are sanctioned by marking them with an official stamp, which may consist of a single letter or symbol. These official stamps are no doubt noticeable on the *owls* of Athens brought to light in South Arabia. But they are conspicuous by their absence on those recovered on the frontiers of India.