Delhi AH 725 tanka

Stephen Album sale 50, lot 537

This specimen was lot 537 in Stephen Album sale 50 (Santa Rosa, CA, September 2024), where it sold for $1,140. The catalog description^[1] noted, "DELHI: Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq I, 1320-1325, AV tanka, Mulk-i Tilang, AH(7)25, mint & date barely visible but sufficient to confirm Mulk-i Tilang (today's Telangana) and the date, XF." 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."

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: silver, this specimen 11.01 g.

Catalog reference: G-D303.

Source:

• 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 677 tanka = 1278
• Delhi AH 726 dinar Fr-453 = 1325
• Delhi AH 727 dinar Fr-453 = 1326
• Delhi AH 748 tanka = 1347; Hadrat Delhi mint
• Coins and currency dated 1324