John Allan (numismatist) John Allan (numismatist) John Allan, (8 August 1884 – 29 August 1955) was a British numismatist and scholar of Sanskrit. Allan was a noted numismatist and produced the first systematic study of the coins the Gupta Empire, which remains a standard reference today. Allan was born in Bolton, East Lothian. His father, John Gray Allan, was the local schoolmaster. After studying at the universities of Edinburgh and Leipzig, Allan took up a position at the British Museum in 1907, eventually becoming the Keeper of the Department of Coins and Medals in 1931. He was also a lecturer in Sanskrit at
Collect for Purity Collect for Purity The Collect for Purity is the name traditionally given to the collect prayed near the beginning of the Eucharist in most Anglican rites. It appears in Latin in the 11th-century Leofric missal and was part of the preparation prayers of priests before Mass. Thomas Cranmer translated the prayer into English and from there it has entered almost every Anglican prayer book in the world. In the Leofric missal and the later Sarum Rite, the original Latin prayer occurs as one of the prayers said before Mass: A version appears as the introduction to the 14th Century anonymous