The coinage assumes a characteristic local type first under Sikandar (Pl. IX, 1), son of the founder of the house of Ilyās, and henceforth there is much variety of design, the Sultan’s name and titles being enclosed in circles, squares, octagons, sometimes with multifoil borders or scalloped edges; margins occur more usually on the reverse only, sometimes on both sides, in which are inscribed the mint and date in Arabic words. Nāṣiru-d-dīn Maḥmūd I (1442-59), abolished the marginal inscription; and from his reign the mint name and date, in figures, appear at the bottom of the reverse area. For some of his coins Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad used _Tughra_ characters, which, owing to the up-strokes being elongated to the upper edge of the coin, give the curious appearance of a row of organ-pipes. It must be admitted that the majority of Bengal coins are entirely wanting in artistic form, the depths being reached perhaps in some of the issues of Ruknu-d-dīn Bārbak (1459-74); the calligraphy is of the poorest quality; and the Bengali die-cutters frequently reveal their ignorance of Arabic. The fine broad coins of the two Afg̱ẖān dynasties display an immediate improvement; they are identical in form and inscription with the Dehlī Sūrī coinage, and are struck to Sher Shāh’s new silver standard. A special feature of the Bengal coinage is the number of its mints; twenty-one names have been read on the coins, but it is uncertain whether some of these are not temporary names for better-known towns. The most important mints were Lakhnautī, Fīrozābād, Satgāon, Fatḥābād, Ḥusainābād, Naṣratābād and Tānda. Also certain coins are inscribed as struck at “The Mint” and “The Treasury.” The broad silver coins of the little state of Jayantāpura, though struck two centuries after the independent coinage of Bengal had disappeared, seem to be a late echo of the popularity it achieved, particularly in the neighbouring hill states. II. COINAGE OF THE SULTANS OF KASHMĪR[56]