Cooch Behar: Lakshmi Narayana, AR Tanka, RB 22, KM 45....full dotted border!

[mitresh]

Independent Kingdoms, Cooch Behar (CB), Maharaja Lakshmi Narayan, 1587-1621 AD, Silver Tanka, 10.05g, 33mm, SE 1509 /1587 AD (frozen as accession date) with actual issue date of CB Era '98' (1608 AD), Ref: RB 22; KM 45

Obv: Within a double circle with border of dots, legend in Bengali script " Sri Sri / Shiva Charana / Kamala Madhu / Karasya" (A bee on the nectar of the lotus on the feet of Lord Shiva); with 3 dots at the end of Line 1 (varieties exist with single dot, star, etc).

Rev: "Sri Srima /n Lakshmi Naraya / nasya Sake"; date 1509 with 98 beneath (SE = Saka Era; CB = Cooch Behar Era)

[Gusev]

with 3 dots at the end of Line 1 (varieties exist with single dot, star, etc).

This type (date SE 1509, CB 98) has only one variant with three dots.
Other options with a crescent, a star, no dots, one dot, or three dots have date coins SE 1509.

Date CB 98 raises questions from experts.
Usually  this date clearly (Rajsaka) 98 (AD 1608). Most probably this date represents the actual date of issue of the coins, while the Saka date 1509 was retained as the accession year. Exactry why this Rajsaka date should have been celebrated by the issue of coins is not certain. In a few pieces it may perhaps be read as (Rajsaka) 92, but as the date has been damaged at this point, this particular date is not easy to read.

Your coin has the date as 92.
I showed a coin with a date like 98

[mitresh]

Thanks Gusev.

I initially placed the CB date as '92' as this is also what is stated as per the auction catalog, but then a collector pointed out that '92' was a mistake as per prior versions and '98' is the ONLY recorded date that is settled amongst scholars and referenced in most recent publications.

[Gusev]

Yes, all catalogs indicate the date 98, but also indicate in the note about the possible date 92.