Tangka

The tangka (Tibetan: Tam or dngul Tam = silver tangka) was a currency of Tibet until 1941. It was subdivided into 15 skar or 1½ sho and, from 1909, it circulated alongside the srang, worth 10 sho.

Coins struck to the tangka standard were first minted in 1763/64 and 1785 and in larger numbers from 1791 to 1948. They exhibit a wide array of varieties and yet maintain a consistent fabric and type.

The first tangkas were struck in Nepal from about 1640. From this period onwards many Nepali tangkas were exported to Tibet. Subsequently silver coins of a reduced weight standard, mohars, were struck by the kings of the three Malla kingdoms which shared the Kathmandu valley. In the 18th century special debased mohars were struck by Nepal for Tibet. In 1763/4 and 1785 the first tangkas were minted in Tibet. These followed the Nepali fabric and type with minor differences to assert their local origins. In 1791, the Tibetan government opened a mint and started striking the so-called kong par tangkas. Its operations were suspended two years later but it re-opened in about 1836.

China opened another mint in Lhasa in 1792, where the minting of the Sino-Tibetan tangka took place in 1792 (only pattern tangkas with inscription in Tibetan only). The Sino-Tibetan tangkas, struck in 1793 bear an inscription in Chinese, which says, Qian Long Bao Tsang (Tibetan money of the Qian Long period) on one side and its transcription in Tibetan on the other side. Tangkas for general circulation were only struck in the 58th year of Qian Long. In the following years of this era and in the Jia Qing and Dao Guang eras only silver shos weighing about 3.7 g were struck. The last Sino-Tibetan issues of the 19th century are dated to the 16th year of the Dao Guang era (AD 1836).

The first indigenously minted Tibetan tangkas which were produced on a large scale are known as the Kong-par tangkas. The Kong-par tangkas were struck from 1791 to 1891. The design of these tangkas remained nearly invariable for several decades. Five different types can be identified based on details of design. Total five dates are found in these coins, 13-45 (1791), 13-46 (1792), 13-47 (1793), 15-24 (1890) and 15-25 (1891). Most of these coins bear the same date, 13-46 (1792) regardless of the year they were actually struck (numismatists refer to "frozen dates"). Two types of the Kong-par tangka dated 13-46 (1792) were actually struck in the 1840s and 1850s. On the obverse, these coins have an inner square with the date in it. The reverse of the coins display eight auspicious symbols of the Tibetan Buddhism, which surround a lotus in the inner circle.

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