Common information. The formula for date conversion
In accordance with the Tibetan calendar, the timeline of life is divided into the equal time cells, their length being 60 years. The rule for writing the date on Tibetan coins is as follows: the number of the cycle is specified first, followed by the serial number of a year in the current cycle. For instance, the 22nd year of the 16th cycle is defined as «16/22». The date conversion formula is slightly complicated. Here it is:
Date AD = (№ of cycle – 1)×60 + № of the year in a cycle + 1026.
Looking back at our example, we have: 16/22 = (16 – 1)×60 + 22 + 1026 = 922 + 1026 = 1948.
On the picture above,
1 — serial number of the cycle;
2 — serial number of the year in the specified cycle.
There's a variety of ways of writing numerals, so this converter provides 3 highly recognizable variants for each numeral.
As a part of a typeface, Tibetan digits are written as follows:
| 0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
| ༠ |
༡ |
༢ |
༣ |
༤ |
༥ |
༦ |
༧ |
༨ |
༩ |
For those who can't see numerals in the table above, here's a PNG version of it (screenshot was made in Google Chrome, Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion):
Peculiarities of date inscriptions on Tibetan coins
On some Tibetan coins you'll see dates written using words, not numerals — in plain English, imagine you wrote «sixteen–two» instead of «16–2»).
Here is a table providing Tibetan words for the numbers «1» to «30».
|
1
|
|
16
|
|
|
2
|
|
17
|
|
|
3
|
|
18
|
|
|
4
|
|
19
|
|
|
5
|
|
20
|
|
|
6
|
|
21
|
|
|
7
|
|
22
|
|
|
8
|
|
23
|
|
|
9
|
|
24
|
|
|
10
|
|
25
|
|
|
11
|
|
26
|
|
|
12
|
|
27
|
|
|
13
|
|
28
|
|
|
14
|
|
29
|
|
|
15
|
|
30
|
|
Known Tibetan coin denominations
Nowadays Tibet is part of China, and only referred to as the spiritual omphalos of the religious doctrine called Tibetan Buddhism. Tibet had a very complicated system of currency units. Some of the known denominations are as follows: tangka, skar, sho, srang.
Tibet had a dual system of currency units. One system was imported from Nepal and its basic unit is called the “tangka” equivalent to about 5.4 to 5.6 grams of alloyed silver, whereas the other was imported from China and its basic unit is the “srang” equivalent to 37.3 grams of silver. These two systems were used in Tibet concurrently from about 1640 until 1959.
The respective values of these coins are as follows:
1 srang = 6 2/3 tangkas.
1 tangka = 1½ sho = 15 skar.
½ tangka = 7½ skar.
1 sho = 2/3 tangka = 10 skar.
The subdivisions of the srang are the following:
1 srang = (6 2/3 * 1½) sho = 10 sho = 100 skar.
1 sho = 10 skar.
The following coin denominations were struck in Tibet in the XX-th century:
Coins made of copper: ½ skar; 1 skar; 1/8 sho; 1/4 sho; 2½ skar; 5 skar; 7½ skar; 1 sho; 3 sho; 5 sho.
Coins made of silver or billon: 1 tangka; 1 sho; 2 sho; 5 sho; 1 srang; 1½ srang; 3 srang; 5 srang (in limited numbers); 10 srang.
Coins made of gold: 20 srang.
[Added January 30, 2014] According to coinweek.com/auctions-news/rare-tibetan-coins-at-spink/, the gold 20 srang denomination was only issued between 1918 (15–52) and 1921 (15–55), this coin type was struck in the Serkhang mint which was located near Norbulingka, the summer residence of the Dalai Lamas. This is one of the most desirable coins of the Tibetan series, year 55 (i.e. 1921 AD) is the rarest (estimated price is US $10,000—$15,000). You can see this coin minted in 1918 (15–52) in the tab of Images of coins, picture 18, and a preview of year 1921 (15–55) here: http://www.spink.com/media/43176/4_300x152.jpg.
English version
Русская версия
Tibet
