Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1325-1351 AD) 1/2 Tanka (Forced currency), mintless

[Overlord]

I'm sorry if the orientation is not correct. The language is totally unknown to me 

[Oesho]

Dehli Sultans, Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

[Overlord]

Dehli Sultans, Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

Thanks Oesho. Would this be one of his "forced currency" types?

I did not recognize the language as Persian; it looks a bit different from the Persian inscriptions I have seen on other coins. I'm curious to learn what's the incription on this one.

[Oesho]

Yes Overlord, this is one of the forced currency issues of Muhammad bin Tughluq (AH725-752/AD1325-1351). The coin is a ½ Tanka and dated AH730. Ref.: Goron/Goenka #D411
The legend is Arabic, not Persian.
The obv reads: al-Wala al-Sutlan l'Akal al-Nas be'Azam, Tughluq. Which has been translated as follows: If there were no Sultan verily the people would devour one another; Tughluq;
The rev reads: al-Tai'awa Allah wa al-Tai'awa al-Rasul wa al-Wali, Muhammad 730. Which has been translated as follows: Obey Allah and obey the prophet and those in authority among you (Qura'an IV.62), Muhammad 730.

[Overlord]

Yes Overlord, this is one of the forced currency issues of Muhammad bin Tughluq (AH725-752/AD1325-1351). The coin is a ½ Tanka and dated AH730. Ref.: Goron/Goenka #D411
The legend is Arabic, not Persian.
The obv reads: al-Wala al-Sutlan l'Akal al-Nas be'Azam, Tughluq. Which has been translated as follows: If there were no Sultan verily the people would devour one another; Tughluq;
The rev reads: al-Tai'awa Allah wa al-Tai'awa al-Rasul wa al-Wali, Muhammad 730. Which has been translated as follows: Obey Allah and obey the prophet and those in authority among you (Qura'an IV.62), Muhammad 730.

Oesho, thanks again. Those inscriptions are very interesting.

[Overlord]

I read that the prime reason for the failure of these coins was that they could be (and were, in large numbers) fabricated easily and in 732 AH, the Sultan was forced to withdraw the issue and redeem the genuine and false coins alike at his own cost. I wonder if there is a way to distinguish the official issues from the fabricated ones.

[Oesho]

No, there is no possibility to differenciate the issues of the Royal Mint from those fabricated by local copper smiths.
I like to quote Edward Thomas (The Chronicals of the Pathan Kings of Dehli, p. 245-246) His Majesty's officers of the mint worked with precisely the same tools as the ordinary workman, and operated upon a metal, so to say, universally available. There was no special machinery to mark the difference of the fabric of the Royal Mint and the handy-work of the moderately skilled artisan. Unlike the precautions taken to prevent the imitation of the Chinese paper notes, there was positively no check upon the authenticity of the copper token, and no limit to the power of production by the masses at large. Under such circumstances it is only strange that the new currency should have run so long a course as the three consecutive years (or one full year with portions of the first and the last), the record of which we find on their surfaces. As already stated, when there remained no question as to the failure of the scheme, Muhammad bin Tughlak, unwillingly, perhaps, but honestly, attempted to meet the difficulty, by authorizing the reception of the copper tokens at the treasury and their exchange for full money equivalents. No scrutiny, had such been effectively practicable, was enjoined against illicit fabrications; and the sums actually exchanged may be estimated by the mounds upon mounds of brass coins which were heaped up as mere rubbish in the Fort of Tughlakabad (Dehli), where they were still to be seen a century later, in the reign of Mubarak Shah II. It is clear that, if good money was paid for all those tokens, Muhammad bin Tughlak's temporary loan, extracted from his own subjects, must have been repaid at a more than Oriental rate of interest, though possibly, in very many instances, compensation reached parties but little entitled to it.

[Overlord]

Thanks Oesho.

[Oesho]

BTW this issue is mintless