Facets of Numismatics Individual Coin Collections at Archaeology Museum of Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute

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On the 6th of October 2021, the Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute is celebrating its bicentenary year. In view of this significant event, the staff and the students of the college naturally thought of celebrating this unique occasion in a fitting manner. The most important activity for the year is publications of monographs representing the research carried out under the auspices of the Deccan College in its several departments by our alumni. This gives a coherent expression of manifold research framework which has been strategically performed, nurtured, and also pedagogically practiced in the institution.

It is a well-established matter that numismatic specimens or coins are an authentic source for the reconstruction of historicity of the subcontinent-political, economic, social, cultural, and religious aspects of its communities and cultures. Moreover, coins enlighten us about the aspects of past lifeways through. various representative symbols, figures, portraits, flora, fauna, arms, weapons, ornamentations, language, script, literary and technological advancement, the extension of trade and commerce, and movement of authoritative ideas and impacts. The growing impetus of coin collecting practice resulted not only in the preservation of the valuable cultural heritage but also remained helpful in bringing into light hitherto some of the important coin specimens and contributed to the ever- growing knowledge system. This monograph entitled Facets of Numismatics: Individual Coin Collection at Archaeology Museum of Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute significantly demonstrates the well-organised and systematically arranged catalogue of the unique numismatic collection housed in the Deccan College Archaeology Museum.

Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute (DC) has been an apex center of learning and pioneering research institute in the field of Archaeology, Anthropology, Linguistics, and Sanskrit studies in India. This year DC is celebrating its bicentennial year and to mark this occasion we had hoped to write a book on the numismatic collection housed in Deccan College Archaeology Museum (DCAM), indeed we remained successful in grounding an overall understanding of the collection. The Numismatic collection in DCAM showcases a diverse set of coins with having significant historical origin and specific object biography.

This book primarily offers a key understanding of the various facets of numismatic study and also comprehensively discusses the essential knowledge required for studying and restoring a numismatic artifact. This book contains three chapters, Chapter I attentively furnish a general overview of the numismatic field of study, essential numismatic vocabulary, various coin minting technique, and further discusses different chemical and mechanical methods and procedures involved in cleaning and preservation of numismatic artifacts. Chapter II briefly provides a historical account about the establishment and development of the Deccan College Archaeology Museum and Archaeology Department, and it also elaborates upon the whole collection of coins present in the Museum. Simultaneously, in Chapter III, we have put forward a systematically arranged and well-descriptive catalogue of the three Individual coin collections (Bhor collection, Prof. H.D. Sankalia Collection, Dr. V.S. Wakankar collection) housed in DCAM. The specimen of coins under each collection has been arranged in an orderly manner according to their metallic content (gold, silver, aluminium bronze, copper, potin, lead) and chronology of the issuing dynasties. Those coins which are recorded as effaced, corroded, highly encrusted, and remained undeciphered have been integrated under the miscellaneous section.