Ancient Indian Maybe? | Dehli Sultanate Billon Tanka 1508

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 3,103
vizzinni New Member United States 3 Posts	Posted 01/23/2011 11:08 am I found this among my late father's collection; there's no others anything like this. My uninformed research makes me guess it's from India. Any informed guesses? The weight is about 8 grams, according to my postal scale, and the color is similar to that of an old penny, making me think it's copper. Identified - moved to World Coins forum - Sap Report this Post to the Staff

DCH Pillar of the Community United States 645 Posts	Posted 01/23/2011 1:05 pm India-Dehli Sultanates. Sikandar Shah Lodi AH894-923(1488-1517). GG# D706, Tanka of 80 Rati, Billon. Struck AH900-922. I think this one is AH914. Report this Post to the Staff
vizzinni New Member United States 3 Posts	Posted 01/23/2011 1:26 pm Thanks! I'm going to thoroughly enjoy doing the research to figure out what you just said Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16817 Posts	Posted 01/25/2011 8:16 pm In case you're having trouble with your research: The Delhi Sultanate - it's sometimes spelled "Dehli" because that's how the city is spelled in Arabic - ruled much of northern India and Pakistan between 1200 and 1550 AD. Sikander Shah Lodi was the last great Sultan of the Lodi dynasty; a coin just like yours is depicted on the Wikipedia page about him. "GG# D706" is the catalogue reference number for this coin, taken from "The Coins of the Indian Sultanates" by S. Goron and J.P. .Goenka. "Billon" is a word that means "low grade silver, of very low fineness". The Dehli Sultanate was unusual in striking coins of very fine silver and coins of very debased silver at the same time, as well as coins of gold and copper. For this particular sultan, his billon coins are far more common than the other metals. The "tanka" was the denomination, linked to the weight of the coin. At the time, a tanka was supposed to weigh about 9.4 grams, or 80 rati, but during this reign the weight of tanka often slipped to as low as 8.5 grams. As for the date: rotate the top pic 90 degrees anticlockwise, so it looks like the one on Wikipedia. The date-numerals are the three characters that look like "91E" at the bottom. These are Indo-Arabic-Persian numerals for "914", the date in the Islamic calendar, which roughly corresponds to 1508 AD. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
vizzinni New Member United States 3 Posts	Posted 01/26/2011 09:12 am That's fascinating, thank you very much. That was much better than what I'd learned on my own. Report this Post to the Staff
northwestseeker Valued Member United States 286 Posts	Posted 01/26/2011 1:05 pm what would something like that be worth? Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16817 Posts	Posted 01/26/2011 4:58 pm The Goron & Goenka catalogue I quoted above doesn;t give catalogue values, just a rarity. For this coin, the rarity is "very common". Fully identified as it is now, it's probably in the $10 to $20 range, though nunidentified ones are often found in bulk lots or the "world coins - 3 for $1" scratchtrays, because they look similar to Indian States copper coins from much later (1800s). Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
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