v! PEEFACE

fourth great Buddhist Council, the Council which gave con-
sistency and official sanction to the doctrines of Northern
Buddhism.

As regards the philological importance of the Indo-Greek
coins, it must not be forgotten that they provided the key to
the Kharosthi script. Many documents written in the
Kharosthi character have been discovered recently by Sir
Aurel Stein in Khotan. A further interest lies in the shape
of these coins, many of them, being square or oblong, and
in the characteristic designs of gods and animals as conceived
by the oriental Greek artist.

I have modelled this Catalogue on Professor Gardner's The
Coins of the Greek and ScytMc Kings of Bactria and India in the
British Museum, which, though published in 1886, is still the
best guide to the student. I have derived much assistance
from the first volume of the Indian Museum Coin Catalogue,
by Mr. Vincent A. Smith, This was published at the
Clarendon Press in 1906. In the Introduction I have used
material from my paper *Ihe Place of Coins in Indian
History5 (Journal of the Panjab Historical Society). I have
been unable to arrange for a Kharosthi fount for the inscrip-
tions in this language. The system of transliteration is that
used by G. Biihler in his well-known palaeographical tables
published in the Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie.

It is hoped that the information contained in the Text
will be found accurate and up to date. Points worthy of
attention have been noticed in the body of the Catalogue.
I have done my best to exclude forgeries. The one or two
doubtful coins which have been included, are marked with
an asterisk. The Catalogue contains lists of coins unrepre-
sented in the Museum, which lists I have made as complete
as possible. Supplementary Plates at the end of each Section
contain reproductions of important and interesting coins
which are absent from this Collection.

Owing to the comparatively small scope of this work,