Assam Unique Coin

[Gusev]

 Assam, Jayadhvaja Simha, Rupee, SE1570 (AD1648).
This coin from the collection of Nicholas Rhodes sold for 23,000  £.

Except for the Tibetan coins with Chinese characters, this type of Assamese coin is truly unique to the coins of South Asia. And the specimen is still unique

Description of the coin at the auction:
"Large crudely engraved Chinese character 'bao,' within square, surrounded by border of pellets, rev. Chinese character 'zang,' written mirror-image.

Nicholas Rhodes described this as 'perhaps the most remarkable of all Ahom coins.' Although he mentions that there was rumoured to be another example in a collection in Kolkata, this is certainly the first and only one of its type to be offered at auction.
He translates the characters 'zang bao' as 'Currency of Tibet' as 'Zang' is the Chinese character for the province of southern Tibet bordering Assam. Also these two characters were used on the coins struck by the Chinese in Lhasa between 1792 and 1836. He suggests that as there was significant contact between Tibet and China in the mid 17íth century it is likely that the Assamese would have thought it appropriate for an Assamese-Tibetan trade coin. He concluded that this coin marked an attempt by Jayadhvaja Simha to expand and profit from trade with Tibet. However, the project was doomed to fail, as around 1652 Pratap Malla of Kathmandu signed a treaty with Tibet giving Nepal a monopoly over transit trade between India and Tibet."

I have a request to our members from India.
Can I get information from the museum in Calcutta about such a coin from their collection?

.

[Figleaf]

Do you mean the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) museum or the coin museum?

Peter

[Gusev]

Indian Museum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Museum,_Kolkata

The Indian Museum Coin Gallery has over 52,000 pieces and is the largest collection of Indian coins in the world.

[asm]

I have a request to our members from India.
Can I get information from the museum in Calcutta about such a coin from their collection?

The guys at the Indian Museum in Kolkata are fairly non cooperative. This is what I was told when I asked a Fb friend, who is the Curator at RBI museum in Kolkata, for some information about coins that were listed in the first edition of the book on coins of the Indian Museum but went missing in the second or later editions.
However, in case you need help from the RBI museum, I can request help from Mr Mahesh Kalra.
BTW, PM Noman Nasir (our member) from Dhaka who had a fairly deep friendship with Nicholas Rhodes and often discussed the coins of North Eastern India.

If he does not respond (I have not seen him post much recently), PM me and I will talk to him.

Amit