Delhi AH 733 tanka
This specimen was lot 634 in Steve Album Auction 55 (Santa Rosa, CA, May 2026), where it sold for $2,640. The catalog description[1] noted, "DELHI: Muhammad III b. Tughluq, 1325-1351, AV tanka, Hadrat Delhi, AH733, Arabic phrase wa Allah al-ghani wa antum al-fuqara ("God is the wealthy and you are the poor"), fabulous strike, superb XF-AU, ex Syed Rabbi Collection." The sultans of Delhi struck an extensive series of gold coins (Fr-402 thru Fr-502) starting about AH 589 (1193 AD). Most of the rulers had very short tenures but Mohammad III survived twenty-six years (AH 725-752).
Wikipedia comments,
"The...Sultanate of Delhi was a late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent, for more than three centuries. The sultanate was established around c. 1206–1211 in the former Ghurid territories in India. The sultanate's history is generally divided into five periods: Mamluk (1206–1290), Khalji (1290–1320), Tughlaq (1320–1414), Sayyid (1414–1451), and Lodi (1451–1526). It covered large swaths of territory in modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, as well as some parts of southern Nepal."
The sultanate reached its territorial maximum during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq, reaching from Kashmir to Madras and from the Indus to Bengal. His issue of debased coinage encouraged counterfeiting and disrupted trade.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specifications: gold, this specimen 11.01 g.
Catalog reference: G-D347.
- Album, Stephen. Checklist of Islamic Coins. Santa Rosa, 1998. Stephen Album.
- 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]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Hanbing Feng, Auction 55, featuring Selections from the Swamperbob Gurney Collection of Cap & Ray 8 Reales, the Kenneth A. Bovenkamp Collection of Ottoman Coins and the 1914 Collection of World Coins, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2026.
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