Other than very, very few coins, dating most of Bhutan’s ancient coins is near impossible. Thus any attempt at doing so would have to be a journey, at best, fraught with inaccuracies and ill-conceived suppositions.
I do not expect that I would be able to put a date of coinage to a large number of my coins. But this is not to say that I am not tempted to do so. If I could, I would be happy to be able to put a rough, if not an accurate, date to every coin that I display in my book.
But something I have to advantage is the fact that our coins have been inspired by the silver Narayanis of the erstwhile Koch Kingdom - right from the earliest of our coinage, to almost the end of 1800, when Trongsa Poenlop Jigme Namgyel began to introduce coins entirely composed of unmistakable Bhutanese motifs.
Of particular excitement to me, among others, has been the Silver Half Tanka of Raja Rajendra Narayan of Cooch Behar (1770-1772) – marked with a CROSS to the right of Ndra.
The Bhutanese authorities - ostensibly - Druk Desi Sonam Lhundrup alias Zhidhar (1769 - 1773) abducted Raja Dhairjendra Narayan and carried him off to be imprisoned in Bhutan. Thereafter, the Bhutanese placed Rajendra Narayan on the throne of Koch Kingdom. He ruled for a short two years - even while being no more than a vassal of the real power behind the rule - the Bhutanese. It was during this period - between 1770 to 1772 - that Rajendra Narayan issued the following Silver Half Tanka, to mark his accession:
Silver Half Tanka of Raja Rajendra Narayan of the Koch Kingdom, issued between 1770 -1772 when he was installed on the Koch throne by the Bhutanese
Although I have pored through few thousand Maartangs, Zangtangs and Ngueltangs, I came across only one single copper coin with similar markings comparable to that of the Koch Silver Half Tanka - except for a few extra dot or two here and there. But what was prominent was the CROSS (X) mark to the right of the Koch word “Ndra”. The following is the one and only CROSS (X) coin I have in my collection:
Other than the two DOTs around the Koch Word "NDra" on the reverse of the coin, the Bhutanese copper Maartang depicted above is an exact replica of the Koch Silver Half Tanka of Raja Rajendra Narayan
Having examined the coin from all angles and observed the near prefect match with that of the Silver Half Tanka of Rajendra Narayan, I was tempted to believe that it was not a Bhutanese coin. But as luck would have it, I had the good fortune to make contact with the Ex-President of The Numismatic Society of India. During the course of our many discussions, he informed me that Koch Kingdom never ever issued their coins - in any other metal, other than silver. Thus I was sure that the coin was, without any doubt - Bhutanese.
Not only did it become beyond doubt that the copper CROSS coin was Bhutanese - something else became almost as certain - that the coin would have to have been hammered no earlier than early/mid 1770AD. It could not have been later than 1880s since, by then, Jigme Namgyel had introduced coins bearing Bhutanese motifs.
When finally my book is released, you will read that colonial British India officials actually went as far as to accuse Bhutan of producing spurious Narayani coins - when, actually, the Bhutanese were merrily hammering the real stuff - clandestinely - in lousy quality base metal!!
😂😂😂😂
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