Muhammad bin Tughluq's monetary experiments were among the most disastrous in medieval Indian history. Around 1329, he ordered the minting of token currency in brass and copper to substitute for silver — a scheme that collapsed within years when counterfeiters flooded the market with unofficial strikes indistinguishable from the royal issue, forcing him to redeem the debased tokens at face value and devastating the treasury. Billon issues like this tanka occupy the complicated middle ground of his reign, where silver content in coinage fluctuated sharply alongside his broader fiscal crises.
Muhammad bin Tughluq's monetary experiments were among the most disastrous in medieval Indian history. Around 1329, he ordered the minting of token currency in brass and copper to substitute for silver — a scheme that collapsed within years when counterfeiters flooded the market with unofficial strikes indistinguishable from the royal issue, forcing him to redeem the debased tokens at face value and devastating the treasury. Billon issues like this tanka occupy the complicated middle ground of his reign, where silver content in coinage fluctuated sharply alongside his broader fiscal crises.