Bukhara (1556-61) tanka
This specimen was lot 2269 in Steve Album Auction 51 (Santa Rosa, CA, January 2025), where it sold for $228. The catalog description[1] noted, "SHAYBANID: Pir Muhammad I, 1556-1561, AR tanka, Balkh, ND, cited in the obverse center as abu'l-ghazi pir muhammad bahadur khan in elegant calligraphy, VF." Wikipedia comments,
"Shaybanid dynasty: Under Abu'l-Khayr Khan (who led the Shaybanids from 1428 to 1468), the dynasty began consolidating disparate Ozbeg (Uzbek) tribes, first in the area around Tyumen and the Tura River and then down into the Syr Darya region. His grandson Muhammad Shaybani (ruled 1500–10), who gave his name to the Shaybanid dynasty, conquered Samarkand, Herat, Balkh and Bukhara, thus ending the Timurid dynasty and establishing the short-lived Shaybanid Empire. After his death at the hands of Shah Ismail I, he was followed successively by an uncle, a cousin, and a brother, whose Shaybanid descendants would rule the Khanate of Bukhara from 1505 until 1598 and the Khanate of Khwarezm (Khiva) from 1511 until 1695. Another state ruled by the Shaybanids was the Khanate of Sibir, seizing the throne in 1563. Its last khan, Kuchum, was deposed by the Russians in 1598. He escaped to Bukhara, but his sons and grandsons were taken by the Tsar to Moscow, where they eventually assumed the surname of Sibirsky.
Numismatics: The Timurid ruler Shah Rukh developed the unit of currency, the tanka-i shahrukhi, in the early fifteenth century. This served as the basis for the silver coins used by the Shaybänids. The broad, thin variant of Shaybänid silver coins, which were popular throughout central Asia, Persia, and north-west India in the sixteenth century, were all created under late Timurid governors. Most of these coins are between 1.1 and 1.2 in. across, with a diameter of at least one inch. Many of Abdullah II's coins have a diameter of almost 1.4 in. at their widest point, with corresponding decreases in thickness."
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: silver, this specimen 4.63 g.
Catalog reference: A-2988.
- Album, Stephen, Checklist of Islamic Coins, 3rd Ed. Santa Rosa, Stephen Album Rare Coins, 2011.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 51, featuring the Howard Daniel III Collection of Asian Coins, the Almer H. Orr III Collection of World Coins and the Joe Sedillot Collection of German Coins, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2024.
Link to:
- Bukhara (1512-13) tanka, Merv mint
- Bukhara (1531-34) tanka, Nishapur mint
- Bukhara AH 1004 1/12 mohur, Badakhshan mint
- Coins and currency dated 1556