Illustrations: 430 Plates Description: Coins and Currency Systems in South India c. AD 225-1300 is a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the coinage of the post-Satavahana and pre-Vijayanagara period. The author has studied and utilized all the published material on the subject and has also thoroughly examined several collections of coins with a view to ascertaining afresh the problems of chronology and dynastic affiliations of coins. The work also has a corpus of coins which describes and gives detailed references to over 400 coin-types and varieties. In the two chapters on the currency system of south India, Chattopadhyaya has not only drawn upon numismatic material but also on a variety of other sources, including epigraphy and literary. He has discussed the significance of various coin series including the Roman and the Chinese, which have been found from a number of sites in south India, and has discussed their significance in the context of currency system. An added feature of this work is the discussion focusing on the problem of adjustment of exchange value between different types of coins in circulation. Chattopadhyaya has given a detailed list of epigraphical references to coins between the third and the thirteenth century in an appendix which substantially supplements the corpus of coins.

This book is a detailed collation of the recorded finds of Roman coins on Indian soil. These are divided into Republican, Julio-Claudian and post-Julio-Claudian coins and there are chapters on the historical significance of the scarcity of Roman finds, the absence of base metal issues in the early empire, the predominance of early imperial denarii, and the difference in composition between the Julio-Claudian gold and silver hoards. There is considerable discussion on slashed gold coins and defaced silver coins and on imitation Roman coins found in India. There are three exhaustive appendices: 1) a catalogue of finds of Roman coins found in India; 2) the present location of Roman coins found in India and 3) Roman Coins in the Madras Central Government Museum. Copublished with the Royal Numismatic Society.