96 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIII, 



640 grs. must have been first coined much earlier than is be- 

 lieved, at present. It would be hazardous, however, to say 

 more in the present state of our ignorance than that Numis- 

 matists would do well to be on the look-out for specimens of 

 earlier dates. 



Junagadh. 



S. H. HODIVALA. 



Note.— The Akbari dam is the legitimate successor of the 

 Suri dam. Sher Shah Suri was the first ruler to strike copper 

 coins of this size and weight. Is it known from the original 

 authorities what these Suri coins were designated ? We numis- 

 matists take it that they were called dams. Halves, quarters, 



known 



single Suri double dam has been found up to date. Mr. H. 

 Nelson Wright, I.C.S., has a heavy dam of fslain Shah Suri (see 

 Numismatic Supplement to the Journal of the Asiatic Society 

 Bengal, XXV, p. 236) but it is not really a double dam. Its 

 weight (460 grains) makes it equivalent to about a dam and a 

 half. As Akbar continued the monetary system inaugurated by 

 that very capable administrator Sher Shah Suri, numismatists 

 call his ordinary copper issues dams. As far as we know from 

 the actual coins so far discovered, the word tanfcd did not come 

 into use on the coinage till the fortieth year, and all tankds are 

 dated in the ilahi or Akbar's divine era. Ordinarily the half 

 tanka, corresponding in weight and size with the dam, is found. 

 But we also get the chaharam hissa, hashtaham hissa, and shanaz- 

 daham hissa. The tanka itself, or full tanka as it is often called 

 to distinguish it from the half tanka which is sometimes loosely 

 designated tanka, is very rare— see N.S. XXV, p. 235. To return 



to the dam for a moment. The actual word fia is only found 



o \x mint— see my new 

 Punjab Museum Catalogue, Vol. II, pp. xcvi and 95. This piece 



? 



in weight and size. 



tanka 



Mr^Stanley Lane Poole is clearly in error when he says the 



dam 



The coins themselves 



show that the dam was equivalent to the half tanka. As re- 

 gards his dictum that there were undoubtedly double dams as 

 well as double tankds, I think I am right in saying that not 

 a single double dam of Akbar has ever been discovered. By 

 the double tanka, Mr. Stanley Lane Poole must have meant the 



full trtnhn fins* I* o 4-U;«~ ~ ~ _ * . i- • •^.U^/* afi 



Such a thing as a two4anka piece weighing * s 

 much as 1280 grains, is totally unknown. Probably at the 

 time when he wrote the words now under discussion, the avail; 

 able coin material was small, and he confounded the half tanka 



with the tanka. 



to the fact 



some tanka issues, e.g. Ahmadabad, Gobindpur, the fractional 



