12 Tlie Initial Coinage of Bengal. [No. 1, 



Sonargaon, certain implied responsibilities for the equity and fulness 

 of his currencies ; while in the subsequent irregularly descending scale, 

 Azam Shah's officials arrived at the most unblushing effort of debase- 

 ment, in the reduction of silver to 962 grains. Among other unex- 

 pected items for which the aid of modern science may be credited, is 

 the support which the intrinsic contents of the erroneously-classed coins 

 of Adil Shah under native interpretation, lend to the correctness of 

 the revised attribution of the pieces themselves suggested by the criti- 

 cal terms of their own legends, in the manifest identity of their assay 

 touch with the associate coins of the lower empire of India. 



Colonel Guthrie has furnished me with the following data, concern- 

 ing the assay of the various coins composing the Kooch Bahar 

 hoard : — " When the Bengal Asiatic Society made their selection of 

 coins from the trove, they set apart four of each description for the 

 Mint, two being for special assay, two for the Mint collection. The 

 result of the assay was as follows (1,000 represents absolute purity) :" 



DEHLI COINS. 



1. Balban (a.h. 664) ... 990 and 996 



2. Kai Kobacl (a.h. 685) 990 and 996 



3. Ghias-ud-din Tughlak (a.h. 720) 



990. 



4. Adil Shall [i.e. Gliazi Shah of 



Bengal, a.h. 751] 989. 



BENGAL COINS. 



1. Shams -ud- dm Fir uz 989 



2. Bahadur Shah 988 and 993 



3. Mubarak Shah 987 



4. Ili as Shah (1st type) 989 ; (2nd) 

 982'; (3rd) 988. 



5. Sikandar Shah (return lost). 



6. Azam Shah (1st type) 981 ; (2nd) 

 989 ; (3rd) 962 ; (4th) 977 ; 

 (5th) 985. 



A question that has frequently puzzled both Oriental and European 

 commentators on the history of India, has been the intrinsic value of 

 the current coin at the various epochs referred to, so that the most 

 exact numerical specifications conveyed but a vague notion of the 

 sterling sum contemplated in the recital by any given author. Numis- 

 matists have been for long past in a position to assert that the I>ehli 

 Tankah contained absolutely 173 grains, which would presuppose a 

 theoretical issue weight of 174 or 175 grains, and a touch of nearly 

 pure silver ; but assuming this specific coin to have 'been a white or 

 real " Tankah of Silver" (!$,& &&3) a doubt necessarily remained as to 

 what was to be understood by the alternative black Tankah (JJl-Js** &£u). 

 Nizam-ud-din Ahmad, in his Tabakat-i-Akbari, seems to assign the 

 introduction of these black Tankahs to Muhammad bin Tughlak, who 

 notoriously depreciated the currency to a large extent, before he re- 



