In the final stage of die-striking, devices were impressed on both sides of the coin, and the best of these “double-die” coins show not only greater symmetry of shape, either round or square, but an advance in the art of die-cutting. Some of the earliest of this type have been classed as gild tokens. The finest were struck in Gandhāra: among these one of the commonest, bearing a lion on the obverse, and an elephant on the reverse (Pl. I, 5), is of special importance, since an approximate date can be assigned to it, for it was imitated by the Greek princes, Pantaleon (Pl. II, 2) and Agathokles, who reigned on the North-West frontier about the middle of the second century B.C. In the execution and design of some die-struck coins from the North-West there are undoubted traces of foreign influences: but such devices as the humped bull, the elephant and the religious symbols are purely Indian. There is, on the other hand, little foreign influence traceable in the die-struck coins, all closely connected in point of style, which issued during the first and second centuries B.C. from Pañchāla, Ayodhyā, Kauśāmbī and Mathurā. A number of these bear Brāhmī inscriptions, and the names of ten kings, which some would identify with the old Śuṅga dynasty, have been recovered from the copper and brass coins of Pañchāla, found in abundance at Rāmnagar in Rohilkhand, the site of the ancient city Ahichhatra. Similarly twelve names of kings appear on the Mathurā coins, but we have little knowledge of these kingdoms beyond what the coins supply. Certain devices are peculiar to each series: thus most of the Ayodhyā coins have a humped bull on the obverse, the coins of Kauśāmbī a tree within a railing. In the coins of Eraṇ[8] we have an illustration, as Rapson says, “of the development of the punch-marked system into the die system.” These coins are rectangular copper pieces (Pl. I, 6), and the device on each consists of a collection of symbols like those which appear on the “punch-marked” coins, but struck from a single die. They are specially interesting in that they represent the highest point of perfection reached by purely Indian money. Some of these, in common with a class of round coins found at Ujjain (Avanti), display a special symbol, the “cross and balls,” known from its almost universal occurrence on the coins of ancient Mālwā as the Mālwā or Ujjain symbol. [8] Eraṇ, or Erakina, the capital of the ancient East Mālwā kingdom, in the Saugor district, Central Provinces. KEY TO PLATE I 1. Round punch-marked coin. AR. Wt. about 50 grs. Obv., an animal, solar symbol, etc. Rev., three symbols. 2. Rectangular punch-marked coin. AR. Obv., bull, solar symbol, etc. Rev., several indistinct symbols. 3. Pair of cast coins, showing join. Æ. Obv., three-arched chaitya, crescent above. Rev., elephant to left.