1/2 Tanka - Muhammad bin Tughluq

Muhammad bin Tughluq's copper token currency of the 1320s–1330s was one of the most ambitious and disastrous monetary experiments in medieval Indian history. Facing a treasury strained by failed military campaigns — including a catastrophic invasion of Khurasan — the sultan ordered that copper tokens circulate at the face value of silver tankas. He failed to restrict private minting, and counterfeit tokens flooded the market almost immediately. Ibn Battuta, who was present in Delhi, recorded that houses of Hindu merchants became virtual mints. The scheme collapsed within a few years, and Tughluq was forced to redeem the tokens for silver at enormous cost to the crown.