Delhi AH 736 tanka
This specimen was lot 634 in Steve Album Auction 51 (Santa Rosa, CA, January 2025), where it sold for $2,880. The catalog description[1] noted, "DELHI: Muhammad III b. Tughluq, 1325-1351, AV tanka, Hadrat Delhi, AH736, superb bold strike, outstanding quality! NGC graded MS63." 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.
Specification: gold, this specimen 11.00 g.
Catalog reference: G-D347.
- 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]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.
Links:
- Delhi AH 733 tanka = 1332
- Delhi AH 738 6 gani = 1337
- Delhi AH 741 tanka = 1340
- Coins and currency dated 1335