Chapter II: The Coinage of Muḥammad Bin Tug̱ẖlaq,

A.D. 1325-1351 (A.H. 725-752)

Faḵẖ̱ru-d-dīn Jūna, on his coins simply Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq, son and murderer of G̱ẖ̱iyās̤u-d-dīn Tug̱ẖlaq, has not unjustly been called by Thomas “The Prince of moneyers.” Not only do his coins surpass those of his predecessors in execution and especially in calligraphy,[53] but his large output of gold, the number of his issues of all denominations, the interest of the inscriptions, reflecting his character and activities, his experiments with the coinage, particularly his forced currency, entitle him to a place among the greatest moneyers of history. For his earliest gold and silver pieces he retained the old 172·8 grain standard of his predecessors. His first experiment was to add to these, in the first year of his reign, gold _dīnars_ of 201·6 grains (Pl. VIII, 7) and silver _’adlīs_ of 144 grains weight, an innovation aimed apparently at adjusting the coinage to the actual commercial value of the two metals, which had changed with the influx of gold into Northern India after the Sultan’s successful campaigns in the Deccan. But the experiment evidently did not work; for after the seventh year of the reign these two new pieces were discontinued.

[53] The fine calligraphy, however, caused the coin to be reduced in size: all succeeding Sultans reproduced these small thick gold and silver pieces, but not the fine script, with the unfortunate result that the mint name which appears in the margin is frequently missing.

Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq’s gold and silver issues, like those of his predecessors, are identical in type. One of the earliest and most curious of these was struck both at Dehlī and Daulatābād (Deogīr), his southern capital, in memory of his father. It bears the superscription of G̱ẖ̱iyāṣu-d-dīn accompanied by the additional title, strange considering the circumstances of his death, _Al Shahīd_, “The Martyr.” His staunch orthodoxy is reflected on nearly all his coins, not only in the reappearance of the Kalima, but in the assumption by the monarch of such titles as “_The warrior in the cause of God_” and “_The truster in the support of the Compassionate_,” while the names of the four orthodox Khalifs, Abūbakr, ’Umr, ’Us̤mān and ’Alī now appear for the first time on the coinage of India. The early gold and silver, of which about half-a-dozen different types exist, were minted at Dehlī, Lakhnautī, Satgāon, Sult̤ānpūr (Warangal), Dāru-l-islām, Tug̱ẖlaqpūr (Tirhut), Daulatābād, and Mulk-i-Tilang. In A.H. 741 (1340) Muḥammad sent an emissary to the Abbassid Khalif at Cairo for a diploma of investiture, and in the meantime substituted the name of the Khalif Al Mustakfī Billah for his own on the coinage; on the return of the emissary, however, it was discovered that that Khalif had actually died in A.H. 740, so during the latter years of the reign the name of his successor, Al Ḥākim, appeared in its place (Pl. VIII, 8).

At least twenty-five varieties of Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq’s billon coinage are known. From inscriptions on the Forced Currency, which included tokens representing these billon pieces, we learn the names of their various denominations. There appear to have been two scales of division, one for use at Dehlī, and the other for Daulatābād and the south. In the former the silver tankah was divided into forty-eight, and in the latter into fifty _jaitils_. At Dehlī were current 2-, 6-, 8-, 12- and 16-_gānī_ pieces, equal respectively to ¹/₂₄, ⅛th, ⅙th, ¼th and ⅓rd of a tankah. At Daulatābād there were halves (25 _gānī_) and fifths (10 _gānī_). The assignation of their respective values to the actual coins is, however, still a matter of difficulty.[54]

[54] I am indebted to Colonel H. R. Nevill and Mr. H. N. Wright for this information.

Billon as well as pure copper coins of the later years of the reign bear the names of the two Khalifs. About twelve types[55] of copper money were minted, most of them small and without special interest. Between the years A.H. 730-732 (1329-1332) the Sultan attempted to substitute brass and copper tokens (Pl. VIII, 9) for the silver and billon coinage. In order to secure the success of this experiment, he caused such appeals as the following to be inscribed on them: “_He who obeys the Sultan obeys the Compassionate_”; and it is significant that one of these tokens bears an inscription in Nāgarī, the sole example of the use of this script by the orthodox Sultan. These coins were struck at seven different mints, including Dhār in Mālwā, but the scheme was doomed because of the ease with which forgeries were fabricated; they were made in thousands; the promulgation of the edict which accompanied the issue “turned the house of every Hindu into a mint,” says a contemporary historian. The Sultan thereupon withdrew the issue, and redeemed genuine and false alike at his own cost.

[55] Excluding the Forced Currency types.