Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Tahil
| Issuer | Pre-Islamic kingdoms |
|---|---|
| Year | 800-1300 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | None |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | त |
| Reverse description | Incuse field bearing a bold Nāgarī character struck into the convex gold surface, rendered in a stylised archaic script consistent with early medieval South and Southeast Asian epigraphic traditions. The legend, reading 'त' (ta), occupies the central field and is deeply impressed, its strokes bold and angular against the lustrous hammered gold ground. The flan is irregular and globular in form, with the device occupying the majority of the usable die area. No border or additional decorative elements are present, reflecting the austere aesthetic of pre-Islamic coinage of the region. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
These diminutive gold pieces circulated across the maritime trading networks of insular Southeast Asia during a period when Hindu-Buddhist polities controlled the spice and forest-product routes connecting China to the Indian Ocean world. The tahil was a weight unit before it was a denomination, and the fractional gold pieces struck to that standard served commerce more than they served any single state — which is why attribution to a specific issuer remains contested across the references.
Wicks's classification separates these by fabric and find-site distribution rather than by political authority, a telling admission about how little we know of the minting arrangements behind them.