Watch List notes:

TIBET: AR vartula tangka (5.53g), ND (1763/4 or 1785), Cr-5.2, YZM-252, 26.39mm, the syllable dza in vartula-script repeated eight times on both sides, with eight-spoked wheel at center, obverse with single central circle, PCGS graded EF40, RRR, ex George Anderson, Wesley Halpert Collections (Spink Auction New York 11 Dec 2000 Lot 79). On both sides the inscription represents the syllable "dza" eight times in vartula-script (equivalent to the syllable "ja" in Sanskrit). The "ja" may be short for "ja ya" (victorious). Together with the wheel with eight spokes in the center the meaning would be "victorious wheel", referring to the teaching of the Buddha or more specifically to the dha rma ca kra (Tibetan chos 'khor), the wheel of religion which according to Buddhist tradition was set in motion by Buddha in the deer park of Sarnath, near varanasi (Benares). Chinese sources report that the first coins were struck in Tibet in 1763/4 and in 1785 and this coin has been been tentatively attributed to the years 1763/4, 1785 or to the early 19th Century (Martynov, A. S.: "O pervych chekankakh monety v Tibete" Kr atkie Soobshcheniia Aka demia N auk SSSR, Institut N arodoz Azji, no. 69, Moscow, 1965, p. 197-202). The attribution of this Tangka to 1763/4 (first Demo Tulku Regent) was favored by Nicholas Rhodes (see "The first coins struck in Tibet", Tibet Journal, vol. 15, no. 4, Dharamsala 1990, p. 56-63). Wolfgang Bertsch suggested an attribution to the regency of the second Demo Tulku in the early 19th Century, since the syllable "dza" in vartula-script on the coin is very similar to the one which was engraved on the upper margin of the seal of the second Demo Tulku when he took office in AD 1811 (see: "Some Difficulties in Dating an Early Tibetan Coin," Numismatics International Bulletin [N I B], vol. 25, no. 8, Dallas, August 1990, p. 184-185 and Bertsch, Wolfgang and Gabrisch, Karl: "Some varieties of Tibet's First Struck Coins," N I B, vol. 20, no. 6, Dallas, June 1986, p. 125-128).

Estimate: 2,500-3,000 USD