Bengal AH 925 tanka
This specimen was lot 46568 in Stack's Bowers ANA sale (Chicago, August 2024), where it sold for $145. The catalog description[1] noted, "INDIA. Sultans of Bengal. Silver Tanka, AH 925 (1519). Husainabad Mint. Nasir Al-Din Nusrat Shah. NGC MS-62."
Wikipedia comments,
"The Bengal Sultanate was a Sunni Muslim monarchy with Bengali, Turco-Persian, Pashtun and Abyssinian elites. The most prominent dynasties were the Ilyas Shahi, House of Ganesha and Hussain Shahi dynasty. The empire was known for its religious pluralism where non-Muslim communities co-existed peacefully. While Persian was used as the primary official, diplomatic and commercial language, it was under the Sultans that Bengali first received court recognition as an official language. The cities of the Bengal Sultanate are termed as Mint Towns where the historical taka was minted. In 1500, the royal capital of Gaur was the fifth-most populous city in the world. Other notable cities included the initial royal capital of Pandua, the economic hub of Sonargaon, the Mosque City of Bagerhat, and the seaport and trading hub of Chittagong. The Bengal Sultanate was a major trading center on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. Bengali ships and merchants traded across the region, including in Malacca, China, and the Maldives."
The Bengal sultanate was conquered by the Mughals, a process that took fifty years and was completed around 1576, when the last sultan was captured and killed at the battle of Rajmahal.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: silver.
Catalog reference: G&G-B818.
- Album, Stephen, Checklist of Islamic Coins, 3rd Ed. Santa Rosa, Stephen Album Rare Coins, 2011.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, August 2024 Global Showcase Auction, World & Ancient Coins, featuring The Emilio M. Ortiz Collection, The Richard Margolis Collection and The Rutherford Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2024.
Link to:
- Bengal AH 922 tanka, Ala al-Din Husain Shah, Dar al-Darb mint
- Bengal AH 927 tanka, Nusrat Shah, Muzaffarabad mint
- Bengal AH 930 tanka, Nusrat Shah
- Coins and currency dated 1519