1/2 Tanka - Nasir al-din Mahmud shah III

Mahmud Shah III inherited the Gujarati throne as a minor in 1537, real power held first by Imad ul-Mulk and then by a succession of competing nobles whose factional violence defined the reign. The sultanate's silver coinage from these years was produced under conditions of considerable administrative instability, with minting authority effectively delegated to whoever controlled the capital at a given moment.

Gujarat fell to Humayun's Mughal forces in 1535, was recovered, then lost definitively to Akbar in 1572 — well after this issue's production window closed. The half tanka denomination served interregional trade along the western coast, where Gujarati silver moved regularly through Cambay's port markets.