1/2 tanka - Nasir Al-Din Mahmud Shah I

Nasir al-Din Mahmud Shah I ruled Gujarat for over five decades — one of the longest reigns in the Sultanate's history — during which the port of Cambay made Gujarat arguably the wealthiest trading state in the subcontinent. Portuguese arrival on the western coast in the 1490s directly threatened that commerce, and Mahmud Shah twice allied with the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate in failed naval efforts to push them back. The fractional silver denominations struck across his long reign reflect a monetized mercantile economy that ran on small-unit transactions.