Bengal AH 928 tanka
This specimen was lot 42357 in Stack's Bowers ANA sale (Oklahoma City, OK, August 2025), where it sold for $6,000. The catalog description[1] noted, "INDIA. Bengal Sultanate. Tanka, AH 928 (1521/22). Arsah Mint. Nasir Al-Din Nusrat Shah. NGC MS-65. Quite a RARE Tanka, this pleasing Gem delivers a bright and vibrant gold color, with this representative being the sole finest graded specimen yet holdered by NGC. A type that does not appear at public auction with any frequency, with us being able to trace no more recent example trading than 2016."
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: gold.
Catalog reference: Fr-558; GG-B790 (RR).
- Album, Stephen, Checklist of Islamic Coins, 3rd Ed. Santa Rosa, Stephen Album Rare Coins, 2011.
- Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, August 2025 Global Showcase Auction, World & Ancient Coins, featuring The Richard August Collection and the Richard Margolis Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2025.
Link to:
- Bengal AH 927 tanka, Nusrat Shah, Muzaffarabad mint
- Bengal AH 930 tanka, Nusrat Shah, Dar al-Darb mint
- Coins and currency dated 1521