Recent Issues
Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society
The Society’s journal has been published since 1971, initially as the ONS Newsletter and since 2006 as the Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society. Starting out as a one-paged sheet, it is now an international peer-reviewed publication that is issued quarterly.
Our archive of past issues can be accessed here.
The Society welcomes submissions to the journal from all members. The guidelines can be found at https://www.orientalnumismaticsociety.org/jons/submission-request/.
254: Winter 2023
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Editorial Pankaj Tandon | 1 |
| Some Rare Kuninda Coins Devendra Handa The Kunindas, who held sway over an extensive area of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the adjoining plains in ancient times, occupy a place of pride in the galaxy of ancient Indian republican tribes and their name shines forth with the brilliance of their silver currency struck on the model of Indo-Bactrian hemi-drachms but having purely indigenous types. From their first discovery in 1834 thousands of these coins have come to light and scholars have classified them variously, but many types and varieties in some recent hoards, stray finds and private collections have remained unnoticed. The present paper brings to light some rare and hitherto unnoticed and interesting features on these coins for the first time. |
1 |
| An unknown and unusual imitation of the Athenian owl Patrick Pasmans | 5 |
| Phanebal of Ascalon: a question of attribution and gender Marvin W. Kushnet Coins of Ascalon in worn condition can be confused with those of Rabbathmoba due to the similarities of the war deities depicted on the reverse. This paper concentrates on the differences in these figures, as opposed to the similarities, allowing for a secure attribution in many cases. Further discussion is aimed at the identity of Phanebal, war-god unique to Ascalon, and reviews the conclusions of past scholarship regarding the god’s gender. |
6 |
| A Kanishka I forgery Nikolaus Schindel An unusual coin discussed in 2009 by Hans Loeschner proved to be controversial but a new find discussed here confirms that it must be a modern forgery. |
9 |
| A Chinese coin found in the medieval town of Handoga (Djibouti) Jorge de Torres-Rodriguez and Joe Cribb A Chinese coin of the eleventh century found at an archaeological site in Djibouti at the mouth of the Red Sea illustrates the international trade of the Indian Ocean. It was found in an excavated context at a location on trade routes from the Red Sea coast to the hinterland. Viewed in the context of Chinese coins being exported to sites around the Indian Ocean, this coin probably arrived at this location between the thirteenth and early fifteenth centuries. |
10 |
| Kabul’s rare ½-tankas of Akbar B. Millancourt The dams or ½-tankas of Akbar from Kabul mint are rare specimens. Here for the first time, probably, one dated Ilahī 44, month bahman, is described. |
13 |
| Four copper coins of early Safavid rulers B. Millancourt Four examples of early Safavid coins are presented here, including a rare royal copper issue of Shah Ismaʾil and three examples with mint names and dates. |
14 |
| The Burger Collection of Chinese coin charms Alex C. Fang and Joe Cribb The collection of Chinese coin-shaped charms and amulets collected by Werner Burger, the renowned expert on Qing dynasty coins and monetary history was recently sold in auction in Hong Kong (Spink, 13 April 2023). This article explains the importance of his collection and how it fits into the history of coin collecting in China. His collection reveals how he set about collecting Chinese coin charms and amulets and shows the range of the collection, its rarities and particularly the regionally produced examples. |
15 |
| Khaksar currency Sanjay Garg This paper delves into the history of the ‘promissory notes’ introduced by the founder of the Khaksar Movement during the 1930s. The movement was one of several that aimed to overthrow British rule in the Indian subcontinent through organized military action. The notes were used as a means of remunerating volunteers, and their history is traced through government archives and a handful of surviving specimens. |
21 |
| Ashoka Prize 2022 | 23 |
| ONS News | 24 |
| Book reviews and notices | 26 |
253: Autumn 2023
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Editorial ~ Paula Turner | 1 |
| An overstruck Parthian chalkous of Pacorus II ~ Seyed Omid Mohammadi and Seyed Mahdi Alavi This short paper introduces a chalkous of Pacorus II overstruck on an issue of Volgases I. |
1 |
| How the privy marks on Aksumite coins might be interpreted ~ Robert Keck and Wolfgang Hahn During the period of minting activity in Aksum which lasted from c. 295/300 AD to c. 630/40 AD, privy marks appear on the coins of all three metals from time to time, but not necessarily at the same time. Their purpose is enigmatic and different interpretations are possible, and the reasons for their use did not necessarily remain the same throughout. Some suggestions are put forward here, since the numismatic material has been broadened by recent research, especially regarding the gold and the silver coins. |
2 |
| An attempt to attribute coins bearing the legend RAMA RAO There is a series of copper coins which are found in southern India (in and around Vellore, Thanjavur and Gingee) which feature a wide array of icons, symbols and deities on the obverse and have a dagger with Devanāgarī legends reading RĀMA or RĀMA RAO with a dagger on the reverse. These coins have been attributed both to the Maratha ruler Rajaram (since they bear the legend RĀMA) or the Nāyakas from the varied symbols on them. This article attempts to confirm the attribution to the Nāyakas based on the historical background and the use of the dagger type. ~ Mohit Kapoor and Purnanand Sanket |
5 |
| Sikh coins: enigmatic silver rupees of Amritsar mint with extra fateh ~ Gurprit Singh Although Sikh coins are among the most beautiful coins of their time, there is very little information about the organization of Sikh mints. Coins are still coming to light with new features that tell us more about the mints. In this article, a new variant is described which may explain why some coins from the Amritar mint have the word TAʾNI on them, indicating ‘second year of minting’ when up to now there have been none to explain what had come before. |
8 |
| The 1 rupee coin of King Edward VII ~ Amol A. Warrick This paper focuses on some of the unusual types of 1 rupee coins of King Edward VII minted during his reign between 1901 and 1910 and documents the different varieties of 1 rupee coins that were minted for circulation (not proof or pattern coins) during this short period of time. |
10 |
| Forgeries of Ottoman coins produced and/or circulating in Serbia during the First Serbian Insurrection (1804–13) ~ Charles B. Smith, Jr Over two centuries it has been asserted that imitations of Ottoman coins were produced under the authority of the First Serbian Insurrection (1804–13) to help fund its operations. A review of the available evidence finds strong reason to doubt such production occurred. Modern attempts to define individual pieces as products of the Insurrection appear to misunderstand the nature of legitimate Ottoman coinage. The origin of the assertions might lie in another source, namely Imperial Russian aid to Serbia. |
13 |
| The Ottoman Rumi calendar and its use on Turkish coins and banknotes ~ Michael Robinson The dates on some late nineteenth-/early twentieth-century Turkish coins and banknotes have for some time been incorrectly listed in the Standard Catalogs of World Coins and Paper Money. This was due to a confusion between the Islamic calendar and the Ottoman Financial or Rumi calendar. In this paper the Rumi calendar is explained in detail and information given on when it was used. The Arabic spelling of the Rumi and Islamic months is also provided. This should enable collectors and dealers to correctly identify their material. |
17 |
| Money on the Silk Road: research at the British Museum ~ Helen Wang, Joe Cribb, Elizabeth Errington, Vesta Curtis and Robert Bracey This paper was originally prepared for the international workshop ‘Chinese Civilization on the Silk Road’ hosted by Professor Rong Xinjiang at Peking University, 9–10 November 2019. The proceedings were published in Rong Xinjiang (ed.-in-chief), Sichou zhi lu shang de Zhonghua wenming (Chinese Civilization on the Silk Road), Beijing, The Commercial Press, 2022. As this volume is not easily available in the UK, we requested and were granted permission to republish it in JONS. The main body and footnotes of the article remain unchanged and the style of the original has been retained, but the bibliography has been updated, and a postscript has been added at the end to include work since 2019. |
21 |
| ONS News | 31 |
| Book notice | 32 |
252: Summer 2023
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Editorial Joe Cribb | 1 |
| Coins of Rustam Aq Qoyunlu countermarked in Varamin (Waramin) Seyed Omid Mohammadi and Saeed Soleimani | 1 |
| Chinese influence in the former Dutch East Indies as evidenced by the use of cash-like coinage T. D. Yih | 7 |
| The discovery of coins in Batu Bahara: The existence of Batu Bahara sultanate in 1745 AD? Saparudin Barus | 12 |
| Qiaopi: a modern Chinese letter and remittance means of payment Zhang Ruiqi | 14 |
| A find of coins and letters relating to H. W. Codrington Barbara Mears | 21 |
| ONS news | 26 |
| Book review and notices | 30 |
251: Spring 2023
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Editorial Paula Turner | 1 |
| A Yaudheya coin of the bull/elephant type with a new legend Devendra Handa | 1 |
| A gold parcel hoard of Kanishka I from Skhakot, Malakand District near Peshawar, Pakistan Gul Rahim Khan | 4 |
| A unique Fatimid damma from ‘al-Sind wa al-Hind’ Bilal Ahmed | 15 |
| A group of twelfth-century Indian gold coins from Balkh John S. Deyell | 20 |
| Reading suggestions and revised attribution for some Malay tin coins recovered from the Batanghari and Musi rivers, Sumatra Aditya Bayu Perdana | 22 |
| ONS news | 28 |
| Book reviews and notices | 30 |
250: Winter 2022
| Page | |
|---|---|
| A Letter from Your Secretary General Pankaj Tandon | 1 |
| Fifty Years of the Oriental Numismatic Society Joe Cribb | 1 |
| On Attribution: Interpretative challenges in Indo-Sasanian (and other) coinages John S. Deyell | 5 |
| Recent Developments in Chinese Numismatics Dai Jianbing | 13 |
| The Circulation and Use of Bamboo Tallies in Jiangsu Province with Particular Reference to the Tongcheng Company Issues François Thierry | 17 |
| Cataloguing the Private Cash of Ancient Annam François Joyaux | 22 |
| Fresh Light on the Copper Coins of the Vemakis Amiteshwar Jha | 28 |
| The Evidence of Gold Content for the Attribution of the Coins in the Name of Candragupta Pankaj Tandon | 33 |
| From Bishapur to Vienna: A note on a hoard of late Sasanian drachms Ehsan Shavarebi | 44 |
| Immobilized Types in Sogdian Coinage: The case of mules between Antiochus imitations and Hyrcodes Aleksandr Naymark | 46 |
| Mints and Urban Dynamics: Baghdād, al-Raqqa and other places Stefan Heidemann | 54 |
| Badshah as the Caliph: Probing caliphal pretensions of the Mughal rulers of India Sanjay Garg | 54 |
| A Biography in Banknotes: The life and career of Alfred Joseph Bull, 1876–1950 Richard Morel | 61 |
| Bombay Tolas Michael Mitchiner | 62 |
249: Autumn 2022
| Page | |
|---|---|
| A Letter from Your Secretary General ~ Pankaj Tandon | 1 |
| A Brief Note on Two Newly Discovered Denominations of Eucratides I Megas: Tridrachms and Pentadrachms ~ Chenyu (David) Zeng | 2–4 |
| A Not So ‘Unfortunate’ Kushano-Sasanian Coin ~ Joe Cribb, Hans Loeschner, René Traum and Klaus Vondrovec | 4–7 |
| Re-reading a Silver Coin of Ancient Arakan and the Chronology of the Chandra Kings ~ Md Shariful Islam and Joe Cribb | 8–14 |
| An Analytical Examination of Georgian–Sasanian Coins and Their Meaning in Numismatics ~ Jonathan Ouellet | 15–22 |
| King Mindon’s Early Coinages ~ Jun Li | 23–29 |
| ONS News – Pakistan Region Meeting 7 August 2022 | 29 |
| Book notice – Copper Coins of Muscat and Oman dated AH 1311–1316 (1893–1899 CE) by Scott E. Cordry ~ Wolfgang Schuster | 30 |
| Book review – Chinese Numismatics: The world of Chinese money by Helen Wang, François Thierry and Lyce Jankowski with an introduction by Joe Cribb ~ Helen Wang | 30–31 |
| Book review – Maldives Local Coins 1070-1331 AH – AD 1660-1913 by Peter Budgen ~ Shailendra Bhandare | 31–32 |
248: Summer 2022
| Page | |
|---|---|
| A Letter from Your Secretary General ~ Pankaj Tandon | 1 |
| Note from Your New Editor ~ Paula Turner | 1 |
| Audumbara Coins with New Features and Disposition of Legends ~ Devendra Handa | 2 |
| A Hoard Parcel of Late Kushan Gold Dinars ~ Joe Cribb and K. K. Maheshwari | 6 |
| New Gold Coins of the Paramāra King Jagadeva ~ Deme Raja Reddy | 12 |
| A Preliminary and Metallurgical Study on the Chola, Chinese and Venad coins from Thankasseri ~ Kollam Hari Sankar B. and Sarath Chandra Babu | 14 |
| ONS News: North America Meeting 15 January 2022 | 21 |
| ONS News: Europe Meeting 7 May 2022 | 23 |
| Book review: Zhong guo xi zang qian bi tu lu [Illustrated catalogue of the currency of Tibet, China] by Yin Zhengmin | 27 |
| Book review: Hunnic Peoples in Central and South Asia: Sources for their origin and history, edited by Dániel Balogh | |
| Book review: The Alkhan: A Hunnic people in South Asia by Hans T. Bakker | |
| Book review: Rivalling Rome: Parthian coins and culture by V. Curtis and A. Magub | |
| Book review: Guqian jipin [Exceptional Rarities among the Ancient Coins by Huo Hongwei [in Chinese] |
247: Spring 2022
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Silver Coins of Jajapella King Gopala Deva ~ Karan Singh | 3 |
| Some Aq Qoyunlu and Safavid Copper Coins of Jahrom ~ Seyed Omid Mohammadi and Reza Ghanaatpishe | 6 |
| Pucka Pice in Fatehpur District 1839: The Wide and Long-lasting Circulation of Awadh’s Coppers ~ Jan Lingen and Jan Lucassen | 9 |
| Catalogue of the Coins of the Bengal Presidency – Part III ~ Paul Stevens and Robert Johnston | 16 |
| Book Review: Erach Rediscovered: Coins, Inscriptions, Seals and Sealings (Om Prakash Lal Srivastava) ~ Karan Singh | 45 |
| ONS News | 46 |
246: Winter 2021
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Some New Varieties and Types of Copper Coins of the Agra Tribe ~ Devendra Handa | 3 |
| Classification of Sado Iron Coins from the Bunkyu Period ~ John Madlon | 8 |
| Catalogue of the Coins of the Bengal Presidency – Part II ~ Paul Stevens and Robert Johnston | 11 |
| Book Review: Ancient Indian Coins: A Comprehensive Catalogue (Wilfried Pieper) ~ Karan Singh | 29 |
| ONS News | 30 |
245: Autumn 2021
| Page | |
|---|---|
| The Coinage of Trigarta Janapada and its Identification with Takkadesa ~ Karan Singh | 3 |
| Lion as Shiva’s Vehicle on Kashmir Coins ~ Devendra Handa | 7 |
| A New Mint for the Coins of Shams al-Din Yusuf Shah ~ S.M. Iftekhar Alam and Zahid Mamun | 10 |
| The Beginning of Ottoman Para Coinage ~ Nikolaus Schindel | 11 |
| Catalogue of the Coins of the Bengal Presidency – Part I ~ Paul Stevens and Robert Johnston | 15 |
| Book Review: When Money Talks: A History of Coins and Numismatics (Frank Holt) ~ Jonathan Ouellet | 28 |
| ONS News | 29 |
| Obituary: Dr. Werner Burger ~ Tim Huxley | 30 |
244: Summer 2021
| Page | |
|---|---|
| “A Group of Mauryan Punchmarked Coins, Including Mashakas” ~ Tyler Holman | 3 |
| “Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek Coinage – Part 1: Notes on the Coins of the Diodotids” (Supplement) ~ Heinz Gawlik | 10 |
| “Heavy Lead Coinage of the Mitra Kings of Ancient Punjab” ~ Karan Singh | 11 |
| “A New Initial of a King of Samatata” ~ Md. Shariful Islam and Md. Shamsuddin | 13 |
| “A Note on the Newly-Discovered Coin and its Context in the Samataṭa Gold Coin Series” ~ Joe Cribb | 19 |
| “A New Gold Coin of Nasir al-Din Isma‘il Shah, the Rebel Sultan in the Deccan” ~ Shailendra Bhandare | 23 |
243: Spring 2021
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Legends on the Karttikeya-Devasena Coins of the Yaudheyas: A New Classification ~ Karan Singh | 3 |
| Countermarked Arab-Sasanian Copper Coins of Jahrom ~ Seyed Omid Mohammadi and Saeed Soleimani | 8 |
| The First Burmese Coin Hoard Outside Burma ~ S.K. Bose and Nirupam Khanikar | 15 |
| Pyne, McDermott and the Emir: The Advent of Machine-Minted Coinage in Afghanistan ~ N.R. Jenzen-Jones with J. Shanley | 20 |
| ONS news | 24 |
| Book review: Kushan Mystique (David Jongeward) ~ Pankaj Tandon | 26 |