The twenty-four contributions in Look at the Coins! reflect the vast scope of Joe Cribb’s interests, including Asian numismatics, museology, poetry and art. The papers are arranged geographically, then chronologically or thematically. The first seven papers look at coins, charms and silver currencies in or from China: Chinese coin-shaped charms, Han dynasty gold unearthed in the Tomb of the Marquis of Haihun, Jiangxi, silver in the history of Chinese currency, a metallurgical and historical study of Song dynasty coins, the Department of Iron Coins at Dongtangzi Hutong in Beijing and the only known annotated plan of a Chinese mint, the six million dollars in silver of the Canton Ransom, and a hoard of Chinese coins found in Turkey. One paper focuses on the coins and medals of the two Pahlavi Shahs of Iran. Nine papers look at finds from ancient Central Asia and Afghanistan: coins of South Soghd in the first two centuries AD, the identity of the rider on Indo-Greek coins, the phonology of Greek names in Kharoṣṭhī script, questions of identity and interpretation in Gandharan reliefs, first-century AD coins in stūpa deposits and the beginning of the Buddhist relic cult in Afghanistan, a hoard of Kushan gold coins from Swabi, Gandhāran Jātakas, Avadānas and Pūrvayogas, Indian imitations of Kushan coins, and a new gold coin of Vasudeva I. Four papers relate to India: Roman coins found in India, ‘Heraṇika’ in the inscriptions of the Western Deccan (c. 200 BC–300), the peck and shroff marks of sixteenth-century North India, and Henry Ernest Stapleton and the coin collection in the Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Two papers relate to South East Asia: one revisits the Stamford Raffles’ Collections, and the other discusses a hybrid pendant found in Thailand. The last contribution celebrates some of Joe’s less well-known interests: poetry, art medals and art photography.
