Late Middle Ages · South Asia · Politics

1332

Muhammad bin Tughlaq introduces token currency

1332

With his treasury drained by the Daulatabad debacle, the sultan ordered copper and brass tokens to circulate at the value of silver tankas. Counterfeiters flooded the markets overnight, every household became a mint, and the experiment collapsed within two years. The sultan was forced to redeem the worthless tokens at face value from the treasury. It was the medieval world's first hyperinflationary currency crisis.