OCT. — DEC. 1856.] Notes on Indian Currencies, 43 
*' marks of favor — silver coin, of several hundred rupees value 
*' were also in use ; and there is one of them now in the British 
" Museum, of which the ingenious Mr. Richardson has given a 
" very full description in his very learned work, the * Persian and 
" Arabic Dictionary.' " 
Elphinstone"^' in his history, alludes very cursorily to the ancient 
coinage of India and merely tells us, " that the first princes used 
*' dinars and dirhems like the Caliphs, these were succeeded by 
" tankhas divided into dams^and jitals — Shir Shahf changed the 
*' name of tankha to that, of rupeia, or rupee, which was adopted 
" by Akbar, and the latter prince fixed the weight and relative va- 
_ lue of money on a scale which remained unaltered 
1761 A. D. 
" till the dissoliftion of the Mogul empire, (1761 A. 
" D.) and is the basis *of that now in use." In a note he adds, " the 
*' Dinar under the Caliphs was about equal to 105. Sd. In Ibn 
" Batuta'sJ time a western dinar was to an eastern dinar as 4 to 1 
" and an eastern dinar j-V of a tankha, which even supposing a 
tankha of that day to be equal to a rupee of Akbar, would be 
" only 2^d. The tankha is said by Ferishta to have been in Ala u 
" Dins time (1295 A. D ) equal to 50 jitals, and in Mohammed 
" Toglak's time (1325 A. D.) it was so debased as to be worth no 
" more than 16 peisas." 
" The rupee§ of Akbar contained 174.5 grains of pure silver 
*' and was divided in%) 40 dams or peisas (of 19 1| grs. of copper 
" each). The dam was divided into 25 jitals (probably a nominal 
" coin). Queen Elizabeth's shilling contained 88.8 grs. of pure 
" silver— Akbar' s rupee therefore was worth Is. ll^d. of English 
" money of his time." 
Having thus traced the various denominations of coins from 
very early times down to a more modern date with such explana- 
tions of their values and kinds annexed as are afi'orded by cotem- 
* Page 429. 
t Lived 1540 A.D.-947 A. H. 
X Who wrote nearly 2 centuries before Baber, that is, about A. D. 1300. 
§ AVeighed 187.5. 
