Lot 7650

AR Ranjana sho (3.06 g.), date off (BE15-40 (1906)) (KM27.1) cut half of tangka KM.27, 5 petals, cut with straight line. This is the only Tibetan silver coin which is frequently found cut much in the manner as the Nepalese mohars were cut. Rañjana script is also known as Lantsa-script. The legend represents an invocation of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and good luck. The coins may have been minted unofficially in Lhasa between c. 1880 and 1912 by Newari merchants - rare, good VF, see Bertsch & Rhodes: The use of cut coins in Tibet (rev. ed. 2007) in Tibet Journal.Vol. 35, No. 3 (Autumn 2010), pp. 19-40; Bertsch: The Tibetan Tangkas with Rañjana Script, ONS-NL #185, 2005, p.18-31; ZENO 305933