2018-02-20 Tue

Zain-al-Abidin was the Sultan of Kashmir. He acquired a halo in popular imagination which still surrounds his name in spite of the lapse of nearly 500 years. He was known by his subjects, and indeed still is, as Bud Shah (the Great King).

The coins of the Kashmir sultanate were unlike any other coins of the Indian Sultanates. Silver sasnus and bronze kaserahs were overvalued in Kashmir - it is said that 1.5 sasnu's (about 9.3 grams silver content) went to a rupee (about 11.5 grams of silver content). Bronze coinage was similarly overvalued. The coins did not see wide circulation and were not often hoarded. This is the reason why the coins of Kashmir are almost never found outside of its boundaries and are all scarce.

This extremely rare silver Tanka of Zain-al-Abidin weighs around 10.48g. The obverse has a legend in Persian ‘Naib Amir-ul-Moninin Gyath al-Dunya Waldin’ and the reverse has an inscription ‘Abul Muzaffar Sultan Zain-al-Abidin’ all within a double line square border.

Todywalla Auctions sold this extremely rare silver Tanka coin for INR 1,20,000.

Image Courtesy: Todywalla Auctions