1 Tangka 'Vartula Tangka', double circle / double circle

The Vartula tangka series represents one of the more analytically frustrating areas of Tibetan numismatics — attributions shift between catalogs, and the double circle / double circle type sits at the intersection of several overlapping administrative and clerical minting traditions that were never well-documented by the issuing authorities themselves. What is established: production occurred under the Kashag government during a period when the Qing presence in Lhasa remained advisory rather than supervisory, before the Gurkha wars of the 1780s forced a wholesale restructuring of Tibetan coinage under direct Chinese oversight.