2017-11-23 Thu

The Malwa Sultanate was a late medieval independent kingdom in the Malwa region of the present-day Madhya Pradesh state in India. It was founded by Dilwar Khan Ghuri, the governor of the Delhi Sultanate, who asserted his independence in 1392.

This silver Tanka of 64 Ratti was struck in the name of Mahmud III of Gujarat in 945 AH. The obverse of the coin is inscribed with the Arabic legend ‘Al-Wathiq Ba-Tayeed Al-Manan Abu Al-Fatah’ and AH in rectangle and Swastik mintmark. Reverse of the coin reads as ‘Mahmud Shah Ibn Bahadur Shah Sultan’ in rectangle.

This Tanka is one of the rarest types in the coinage of the Malwa Sultans. In 1537 Malwa was conquered by Bahadur Shah, the Sultan of Gujarat. Soon afterwards Humayun attacked Malwa and captured it for a short period. In the meantime, Bahadur Shah died living his governor Mallu Khan the supreme authority of what was left of Malwa under the rule of Gujarat. Mallu Khan assumed the title of Qadir Khan and held the authority to strike coins. However, he didn’t strike them in his own name he used the name of the Mahmud III, the Sultan of Gujarat instead. In a remarkable error of parentage, the legend on this coin gives the name of the father of Mahmud as Bahadur when in reality it was Latif!

This coin was sold for INR 1,00,000 at Classical Numismatic Gallery.