Delhi AH 738 6 gani
This specimen was lot 2456 in Stephen Album sale 50 (Santa Rosa, CA, September 2024), where it sold for $42. The catalog description[1] noted, "DELHI: Muhammad bin Tughluq, 1325-1351, BI 6 gani, AH738, an attractive mint state example! NGC graded MS62." Numismatically, the sultans of Delhi are best known for 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). Numista notes that this coin was three fourths of a tanka.
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, such as this six gani, encouraged counterfeiting and disrupted trade.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 3.53 g, billon, 15.1 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: G-D379.
- 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 50, featuring selections from the Dr. Robert A. Rosenfeld Collection, the Hakim Hamidi Collection, the Almer H. Orr III Collection and the Solar Collection, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2024.
Link to:
- Delhi AH 736 tanka = 1335
- Delhi AH 748 tanka = 1347; Hadrat Delhi mint
- Coins and currency dated 1337