Lot 79
79
The Vartula Tangka, (5.53g), struck either by the 1st Demo Tulku in 1763/4, or by the 2nd Demo Tulku in 1811-16, this type also has the same type on both sides, with the letter "Ja" in Vartula script (for Jaya, meaning Victory) repeated eight times on each side, (C.5) very fine and very rare
The Vartula Tangka, (5.53g), struck either by the 1st Demo Tulku in 1763/4, or by the 2nd Demo Tulku in 1811-16, this type also has the same type on both sides, with the letter "Ja" in Vartula script (for Jaya, meaning Victory) repeated eight times on each side, (C.5) very fine and very rare

Details
The Vartula Tangka, (5.53g), struck either by the 1st Demo Tulku in 1763/4, or by the 2nd Demo Tulku in 1811-16, this type also has the same type on both sides, with the letter "Ja" in Vartula script (for Jaya, meaning Victory) repeated eight times on each side, (C.5) very fine and very rare
Further details
The attribution to the first Demo Tulku is set out by the present cataloguer in "The First Coins struck in Tibet", The Tibet Journal, Vol.XV No.4, 1990 p.115-134, while the alternative attribution to the 2nd Demo Tulku was suggested by the late Dr.Karl Gabrisch (ed. By Wolfgang Bertsch) in "The First Coins struck in Tibet", NI Bulletin, March 1999, pp.56-63. The present cataloguer still prefers the earlier date, because the full tangka weight and 90 fine silver alloy would be logical for a coinage of around the 1760's, when the Tibetans would have initially copied the best of the Nepalese coins in circulation. In 1811, however, the coinage had stabilised with fine silver Sino-Tibetan coins weighing about 3.8g, and debased coins, Tibetan and Nepalese, weighing 5.6g, all circulating together with one common value. In any case, although many different dies were made and used for these Vartula Tangkas, with die duplicates rarely encountered, most of the pieces struck were presumably melted, and only about two dozen have survived.