Ghaznavid Bi-Lingual Jital, 1041-1050 A.D.
Familiar "Samanta Deva" jital reclining bull, but with tamgha on rear flank. Instead of the expected, Picasso-esque horseman on the reverse, there is an inscription in 4 lines within a circle surrounded by a legend (mostly illegible or off-flan). Billon, 16mm, 3.23gm, axis: 12:00
On 10/17 we received the following:
From Steve Bridges:
This coin appears to be a billon jital of the Ghaznavid ruler, Mawdud I, 1041-1050 AD, Tye #93.2. Obverse: "Sri Samanta Deva" in Nagari script above bull. Reverse: "Abu'l fath / al-amir al-ajalla / Shihab-ad-daulah / Mawdud" in four lines in Arabic script. Legend around rim on reverse, if visible, would have read: "Bismillah: Lahor" and possibly a date. Hope this helps.
From Dave Tranbarger:
By way of explanation in addition to Steve's attribution, the Ghaznavids maintained two parallel regional currencies, both descendants of the Shahi bull-and-horseman drachm. For the western provinces, the mint of Ghazna issued purely inscriptional coins in keeping with Muslim sensibilities but struck on thick Shahi-style flans ("yamini" dirhams, etc) rather than broad Persian-style flans. Coins minted at Lahore for the eastern provinces used the same thick flans but maintained the familiar Hindu Shahi bull on the obverse while substituting Arabic inscriptions for the horseman on the reverse ("jitals").
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