The silver coinage of the Guptas starts, as has been already noticed, with the overthrow of the Western Satraps by Chandragupta II. His issues follow those of the conquered nation very closely, except that on the obverse appears a figure of Vishṇu’s sacred bird, Garuḍa, in place of the _chaitya_, and the dates are computed in the Gupta instead of in the Śaka era. Obviously these were intended for circulation in the recently annexed provinces. Kumāragupta, while striking large quantities of the Garuḍa-type coins in the west (Pl. VI, 1), extended the silver coinage to the Central Provinces of his Empire. This latter class of money is entirely distinct in character: the head on the obverse is drawn in a crude but quite original manner, and is probably intended as a portrait of the king; on the reverse the king’s devotion to Kārttikeya is once more displayed in the representation of a peacock with outstretched wings. A third class of silver-plated coins, with a rude figure of Garuḍa on the reverse, seems to have been intended for the tributary state of Valabhī.[32] Skandagupta continued the Garuḍa and Peacock types (Pl. VI, 2) of his father, and introduced two new ones. The coins, of very base silver, with Śiva’s sacred bull Nandi on the reverse, were probably current in Kathiawar; but commoner than any of the preceding are certain ill-shaped pieces with an altar on the reverse. None of the direct descendants of Skandagupta appears to have struck silver, but a few coins of the Peacock type were issued by Budhagupta, a king of Eastern Mālwā, about A.D. 480. The dates which appear on these coins to the left of the obverse head in the Western, and to the right in the Central, issues are frequently defective or illegible. Inscriptions are confined to the reverse, on the Peacock type always a metrical legend, on all other types the king’s name accompanied by high-sounding titles. [32] In the Kathiawar peninsula, forming part of what was then known as Surāshṭra. The copper coinage, which is practically confined to the reign of Chandragupta II, is far more original in design. Eight out of the nine types known to have been struck by him have a figure of Garuḍa on the reverse, usually accompanied by the name of the king, while the obverse is occupied by the bust or head of the king, or by a three-quarter length portrait. In one class this is varied by the reproduction of the gold Chattra type obverse (Pl. V, 13). The tiny coins which constitute the ninth type have the word _Chandra_ in the obverse and a flower vase (_kalaśa_) on the reverse. Only four copper pieces are at present known of Kumāragupta. After the death of Skandagupta, in A.D. 480,[33] the Gupta Empire rapidly broke up. The inferiority and comparative scarcity of his own gold coins, the still more debased issues of his brother Puragupta and subsequent kings, and the disappearance of silver money, bear ample evidence to their curtailed territory.