The denomination is also found in Russia under the form dengi. See a quotation under [COPECK], and compare [PARDAO].
c. 1335.—"According to what I have heard from the Shaikh Mubarak, the red lak (see [LACK]) contains 100,000 golden tankahs, and the white lak 100,000 (silver) tankahs. The golden tanka, called in this country the red tanka, is equivalent to three mithḳāls, and the silver tanka is equivalent to 8 hashtkānī dirhams, this dirham being of the same weight as the silver dirham current in Egypt and Syria."—Masālik-al-abṣār, in Not. et Exts. xiii. 211.
c. 1340.—"Then I returned home after sunset and found the money at my house. There were 3 bags containing in all 6233 tankas, i.e. the equivalent of the 55,000 dīnārs (of silver) which was the amount of my debts, and of the 12,000 which the sultan had previously ordered to be paid me, after of course deducting the tenth part according to Indian custom. The value of the piece called tanka is 2½ dīnārs in gold of Barbary."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 426. (Here the gold tanga is spoken of.)
c. 1370.—"Sultán Fíroz issued several varieties of coins. There was the gold tanka, and the silver tanka," &c.—Táríkh-i-Fíroz Sháhí, in Elliot, iii. 357.
1404.—"... vna sua moneda de plata que llaman Tangaes."—Clavijo, f. 46b.
1516.—"... a round coin like ours, and with Moorish letters on both sides, and about the size of a fanon (see [FANAM]) of Calicut, ... and its worth 55 maravedis; they call these tanga, and they are of very fine silver."—Barbosa, 45.
[1519.—Rules regulating ferry-dues at Goa: "they may demand for this one tamgua only."—Archiv. Port. Orient. fasc. 5, p. 18.]
c. 1541.—"Todar ... fixed first a golden ashrafi (see [ASHRAFEE]) as the enormous remuneration for one stone, which induced the Ghakkars to flock to him in such numbers that afterwards a stone was paid with a rupee, and this pay gradually fell to 5 tankas, till the fortress (Rōhtās) was completed."—Táríkh-i-Khán-Jahán Lodí, in Elliot, v. 115. (These are the Bahlūlī or Sikandarī tankas of copper, as are also those in the next quotation from Elliot.)
1559.—"The old Muscovite money is not round but oblong or egg-shaped, and is called denga.... 100 of these coins make a Hungarian gold-piece; 6 dengas make an altin; 20 a grifna; 100 a poltina; and 200 a ruble."—Herberstein, in Ramusio, ii. f. 158v.
[1571.—"Gujarati tankchahs at 100 tankchahs to the rupee. At the present time the rupee is fixed at 40 dams.... As the current value of the tankchah of Pattan, etc., was less than that of Gujarat."—Mirat-i-Ahmadī, in Bayley, Gujarat, pp. 6, 11.