The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c18.70

c18.70

About the exact value of the copper coin in relation to *jital* and the *tankah*, our knowledge is largely inferential. In the first place, we do not know its exact denomination; some of them, as noted earlier, bear the inscription '*adl*', but this term is found subsequently in billon and silver issues also⁷. Shahabuddin Abbas, writing early in the 14th century and referring to Muhammud b. Tughluq's currency, calls his copper coins *fals*, four of which, he adds, exchanged for a jital¹. In the second place, the actual weight of the copper issues, which varies from 71 to 12 grains², does not give us any clue as to their intrinsic proportional value. On the other hand, if Messrs. Wright and Nevill are right in holding, as they do, that the exchange value of copper to silver was 80:1 (that is, 288 grains of copper exchanged for a jital containing 3·6 grains or 2 ratis of silver) then, the intrinsic value of the copper coin calculated in silver, would determine its relation to the higher coins in Delhi transactions. A tankah containing 14·4 grains of silver, for example, would thus exchange for 16 copper pieces of 72 grains each, and for 96, in the case of the smaller issues of 12 grains each. In other words, four 72-grains copper coins would be equivalent to one jital and would thus accord with Shahabuddin’s statement respecting the exchange value of the fals, thus showing that there was little fluctuation in the value of the currency pieces from the 13th century.