1807.] The Initial Coinage of Bengal 19 



apiece ;" to this passage is added in a marginal note, that, " a tole is 

 a rupia challany [current] of silver, and ten of these toles are of the 

 value of one of gold."* This evidence might at first sight seem to 

 militate against the conclusion arrived at from the official returns 

 above summarized, but the value of gold was clearly on the rise, and 

 one of the aims of Akbar's legislation on metallic exchanges, which 

 had necessarily been disturbed by progressive modifications in the 

 relative values of the precious metals, was manifestly to secure an 

 authoritative even reckoning by tens and hundreds. The old round 

 muhar, (No. 4 of the above list) represented the inconvenient sum of 

 nine rupees, or 360 ddms ; by raising the weight of the piece to the 

 higher total given under No. 3, the gold ihihl was made equivalent 

 to ten rupees, or in fiscal reckoning to 400 dams. Similarly, in the 

 case of the silver coin, the old rupee passed for 39 ddms, in the 

 new currency a value of 10 ddms was secured, not by an increase of 

 weight, but by the declared and doubtlessly achieved higher standard 

 of the metal employed, aided by the advantage that contemporary 

 mintages so readily secured in India. 



The subdivisions of the standard silver Tankah, as well as the 

 relative exchange ratios of silver and copper in their subordinate 

 denominations, claim a passing notice. Though Bengal proper pro- 

 bably remained satisfied with its lower currency of cowries, supple- 

 mented by the occasional intervention of copper, for some time after 

 the introduction of gold and silver money, yet as the earliest copper 

 coins of that kingdom must have been based upon and, in the first 

 instance, supplied by Dehli mintages, the Imperial practice comes 

 properly within the range of the local division of the general enquiry. 



It has been seen that Minhaj-ul-Siraj, in comparing the circulating 

 media of Hindustan and Bengal, speaks of the currency of the former 

 as composed of Chitals, a name which is seemingly used by himself 

 and succeeding authors in the generic sense for money, as if these 

 pieces continued to constitute the popular standard both in theory 

 and practice, notwithstanding the introduction of the more imposing 

 tankahs of gold and silver. Up to this time it has not been possible 

 satisfactorily to demonstrate the actual value of the coin in question; 

 in some cases indirect evidence would seem to bring its intrinsic 

 worth down to a very low point, while at times the money calcula- 

 * Purchas' Travels, folio, 1625-26, i. 217.' 



