II. Observations on the Coins found by Colonel Caldwell in the Tumuli described in the preceding Letter from Sir Anthony Carlisle, Knt. By Richard Payne Knight, Esq. V.P.

Extract

The three irregularly square pieces of silver which accompany this Letter, weighing from forty-three to thirty-five grains each, in a dimension of about a quarter of a square inch, are not properly Coins, having no impressions in relief stricken from dies, but merely incuse marks, irregularly imprinted by small and very neat stamps worked by hand: nor do these marks appear to imitate or represent any thing, but to be mere arbitrary signs; though their being found with the relicks of the dead, in sepulchral urns, proves them to have have had some sacred or symbolical meaning. The pieces themselves appear, from the irregular bulging in the edges, to have been beaten flat and stamped, after being divided into monetary portions; and they are worn and polished in a manner which proves them to have been long in use as a circulating medium. Both the circumstances of their discovery, and the simplicity of their fashion are such, that we may, perhaps, safely pronounce them to be the most ancient and primitive specimens of money extant; though it is in vain to offer any conjectures concerning their date, or to seek for any accounts of the nation by which they were fabricated and employed, all the native histories and traditions of India terminating in allegorical fable at a much later period.