1 Dugani - Ghiyas-ud-din Balban

Balban's coinage represents a deliberate assertion of authority following decades of weakened sultanate control under the Slave Dynasty's later rulers. Having served as a powerful regent before seizing the throne outright in 1266, he used administrative and ceremonial reforms — including strict court protocol borrowed from Persian imperial tradition — to project an image of absolute sovereignty. His billon issues, struck in the lowest denomination, were the coins most ordinary people actually handled.

The dugani circulated at a period when Delhi's monetary system was still finding its footing between older regional traditions and the centralizing ambitions of the sultanate.