1873.] E. Thomas —Ihe Initial Coinage of 'Bengal. — It. II 347 
answering to or ^ of the tanlcah; and under Muhammad Tughluq, amid 
other useful breaks in the too-uniform descending scale of the small change, 
a new division was introduced in the form of a or six-lcani piece, which 
subsequently became better known as the Mach tanlcah 
It would appear that the normal or conventional rate of exchange of 
the precious metals mechanically accepted in India from the earliest times 
was as silver to gold 8:1; copper to silver 64: 1. Of course these rates 
were constantly liable to fluctuation;f Indeed, we can trace the effect of 
the influx of the gold of the Dak’hin, after its conquest, in the fall of that 
metal, evidenced by the obvious readjustment of the weights of the gold 
and silver coinage at the Imperial seat of Government. But the copper 
rate must have had a very extended lease of immutability, as this ratio of 
64 : 1 was maintained from the most primitive ages up to the time of 
Sikandar Lodi (a.d. 1488-1517). 
As regards the application of these data to the examples specially 
under review, it would seem that the Bengal silver coinage was, from the 
first, deficient in weight in reference to the corresponding issues of the 
Dihlf mint; but the Dihlf silver coins were avowedly designed to fall in 
with the concurrent gold pieces of identical weight, and of full standard in 
metal: whereas we must suppose that the Lak’hnauti silver pieces, in 
introducing a new element, were graduated to exchange in even sums 
against the extant gold currency of Bengal and Orisa. Now the gold 
marli weighed, as we have seen, 4375 grains, which, with gold as 1 to 8 of 
silver, would require 350 grains of the latter metal as its equivalent, or two 
175 grain tanlcahs , reconciling alike the fours of the Hindu ideal, with the 
fives and tens of Muslim predilection ; but as there is reason to believe 
that the local gold was not refined up to a high state of purity, this defective 
standard may readily account for the corresponding reduction of a few 
grains on the full total of the silver pieces, equally as it may have justified 
the acceptance of a lower touch in the silver itself. 
Later in point of time, under Bahadur Shah (710-730 A.n.), the 
progressive fall in the value of gold is more definitively marked by the 
diminution of the weight of the silver piece to the uniform standard of 166 
grains, J in contrast to the 169 grains which are preserved in some of the 
primary issues here described (Nos. 6, 7). 
* Pathan Chronicles, coin No. 207, p. 252. See also pp. 218, 219. I was mistaken 
in my first impression that the Bengal tanlcahs themselves might have a claim to this 
obnoxious designation. J.R.A.S., II, 160. 
f In Akbar’s time, even, the progressive alteration in the value of gold, since so much 
accelerated, had only reached the proportion of 9’4 : 1. Chronicles, p. 424. J.R.A.8., II., 
p. 63. 
J Pathan Chronicles, p. 235. In my previous article in this Journal , I was led by 
