Pūl (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: ,

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

: پول) was a historical

currency that circulated in

Russian Turkestan Russian Turkestan (russian: Русский Туркестан, Russkiy Turkestan) was the western part of Turkestan within the Russian Empire’s Central Asian territories, and was administered as a Krai or Governor-Generalship. It comprised the ...

. Pūls were used in

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragme ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, Bukhara,

Chagatai Khanate The Chagatai Khanate, or Chagatai Ulus ( xng, , translit=Čaɣatay-yin Ulus; mn, Цагаадайн улс, translit=Tsagaadain Uls; chg, , translit=Čağatāy Ulusi; fa, , translit=Xânât-e Joghatây) was a Mongol and later Turkicized kh ...

Kokand Khanate The Khanate of Kokand ( fa, ; ''Khānneshin-e Khoqand'', chg, ''Khoqand Khānligi'') was a Central Asian polity in the Fergana Valley centred on the city of Kokand between 1709 and 1876. Its territory is today divided between Uzbekistan, Kyrg ...

Dzungar Khanate The Dzungar Khanate, also written as the Zunghar Khanate, was an Inner Asian khanate of Oirat Mongol origin. At its greatest extent, it covered an area from southern Siberia in the north to present-day Kyrgyzstan in the south, and from t ...

, and other Eurasian principalities, it was a copper coin of very small denomination, 1/60 of an altyn.

Etymology

From

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle ...

*pōl, Borrowing from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

ὀβολός (obolós).

In the Golden Horde

In the

pūl coins were officially set to a rate of 16 pūls per ''dannik'' as was escribed on many pūl coins, and were often struck by banks at the request of private customers who exchanged their raw copper for coins. The Khans, and their financial advisors often manipulated the market value of pūls by issuing new coins with the inscription “a new pūl” while declaring all other pūls in circulation to no longer be valid media of exchange, and the population was forced to exchange their old pūl coins for new ones. Generally speaking the newer pūl coins tended to be heavier, though their weights weren't standard. Officially they remained set at 16 pūls per ''dannik'' however this was purely symbolic and many local government issued their own exchange rates.

Dzungar pūls under Manchu rule

After the Manchu conquest of the Dzungar Khanate pūl coins were offered by the Qing government to be exchanged for ”Red Cash” at a ratio of 2 pūl for 1 cash, but after 1762 the exchange was altered to 1:1. Under the Qing dynasty pūl coins continued to be produced until 1745, and the Manchus stopped pulling them out of circulation to cast “Red Cash” in 1768. Small amounts of pūl coins returned to the market during the

Dungan Revolt (1862–77) Dungan revolt may refer to: * Dungan revolt (1862–77), rebellion of various Muslim ethnic groups in Shaanxi and Gansu, China * Dungan revolt (1895–96) Dungan revolt may refer to: * Dungan revolt (1862–77) Dungan revolt may refer to: * Dung ...

Pūl coins of Yaqub Beg

The Tajik Dungan leader

Yaqub Beg Muhammad Yaqub Bek (محمد یعقوب بیگ; uz, Яъқуб-бек, ''Ya’qub-bek''; ; 182030 May 1877) was a Khoqandi ruler of Yettishar (Kashgaria) during his invasion of Xinjiang from 1865 to 1877. He held the title of Atalik Ghazi (" ...

first issued pūl coins with the name of the late Kokandi leader Malla Khan (1858–1862), and despite being minted in Kashgar, Xinjiang they bore the inscription “Struck in the Mint of Kokand”, however from 1873 new coins produced under Yaqub Beg bearing the name of Abdülaziz, Sultan of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, and this time these pūls did bear the inscription "Struck in the Mint of Kashgar, the Capital".

Pūl coins in the Kokand Khanate

The monetary system of the

Khanate of Kokand The Khanate of Kokand ( fa, ; ''Khānneshin-e Khoqand'', chg, ''Khoqand Khānligi'') was a Central Asian polity in the Fergana Valley centred on the city of Kokand between 1709 and 1876. Its territory is today divided between Uzbekistan, Kyr ...

was dependent on the influx of foreign coins into its territory, particularly coins from Bukhara. However under the reign of Narbuta Beg monetary reforms were enacted to produce local coinage, pūl (or ''ful'') coins which were referred to as “black money”, and at the time of their introduction a single pūl could buy a

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

. The

mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...

of the khanate had a capacity to produce 1000 coins on a daily basis. The exchange between copper, silver, and gold coinages as well as the purchasing power of Kokandi pūls often changed, Kokandi pūls generally weighed 1 '' mithqāl'' (4.55 g), in the 1850s 6 pūls were needed for 1 ''Miri'', and 24 pūls for a silver coin. Silver coins minted by Mingbashi Musulmonqul were valued at 24–32 pūls, this the 1870s this fluctuated between 42 and 64 pūls with the highest exchange rate being at 100 pūls. Generally 3 Kokandi pūls were valued at 1 Russian silver '' kopeyka'', and Kokandi pūls also circulated in the Khanate of Khiva, the Emirate of Bukhara, and the Chinese city of Kashgar.

Pūl coins of Tashkent

In 1784

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2 ...

became independent from the Kazakh Khanate, this was briefly followed by the concurrent rule of 4 ''ḥākims'' (circuit justice administrators), the ''ḥākim'' Shaykhantaur took control from the others and proclaimed himself as the only ruler of Tashkent. As the title of ''ḥākim'' was elected this period in Tashkent's history is sometimes referred to as the “Republic of Tashkent”, during this era Tashkent issued its own copper pūl (or ''Fulūs''), and silver ''tanga'' coins. Pūl coins produced in Tashkent generally had 2 sizes with the lower denomination pūl being between 14 and 17 millimeters in diameter, while those of higher value would be between 20 and 24 millimeters. The coins often contained the mint mark of Tashkent in Persian as “Coinage of Tashkent” (

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: ضرب تاشكند), and had a Persian blessing inscribed on them reading “May the future life be good” (Persian: عاقبت خير باد). The obverse of Tashkent's pūls often would not bear any

mint mark A mint mark is a letter, symbol or an inscription on a coin indicating the mint where the coin was produced. It should not be confused with a mintmaster mark which is the mark of the mintmaster. History Mint marks were first developed to locate ...

s but various images like

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

, or mythological creatures.Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
Latest Contributions to the Numismatic History of Central Asia (late 18 – 19th Century).
' XIV International Numismatic Congress (Glasgow 2009), Section IV: Oriental and African Studies. By Dr. Vladimir Nastich. Published:

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

, July 2009. Last Updated: 11 November 2010. Retrieved: 15 July 2017. These coins continued to be produced until Tashkent was annexed by the Khanate of Kokand in 1809.

References

{{reflist

Literature

* Uzdennikov V. Coins of Russia (1700—1917): Third edition. Moscow, Collector's Books; IP Media Inc., 2004 (Узденников В. Монеты России (1700—1917): Издание третье. — М.: Collector's Books; IP Media Inc., 2004). * Album, S. 1998. ''A Checklist of Islamic Coins, 2nd ed.'' * Bosworth, C. E. 1996. ''The New Islamic Dynasties''. New York:

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...

. * Bregel, Y. 1988. S.v. “Mangit/Mangits” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed., 6: 417–419. * Burnasheva, R. 1967. Monety Bukharskogo Khanstva pri Mangytakh: Epigrafika Vostoka, 18: 113–128. 4 plates, 3 tables. (Shah Murad, Haydar Tora, and Husayn). * Burnasheva, R. 1972. Monety Bukharskogo Khanstva pri Mangytakh: Epigrafika Vostoka, 21:69-80. 4 tables (Nasr Allah, Muzaffar, ʿAbd al-Ahad, and ʿAlim Khan). * Davidovich, E. A. 1964. Istoriia Monetnogo Dela Srednei Azii XVII-XVIII vv. old and Silver of the Janids Dushanbe. * Fedorov, M. 2002. “Money circulation under the Janids and Manghits of Bukhara, and the Khans of Khoqand and Khiva.” Supplement to ONS Newsletter 171. * Kennedy, H., ed. 2002. ''An Historical Atlas of Islam''. Brill. * Krause, C. L., and C. Mishler. 2002.

Standard Catalog of World Coins The ''Standard Catalog of World Coins'' is a series of numismatic catalogs, commonly known as the Krause catalogs. They are published by Krause Publications, a division of Active Interest Media. Overview The by-century volumes list by date virt ...

, 1701–1800, 3rd ed. * Krause, C. L., and C. Mishler. 2004. Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801–1900, 4th ed. * Krause, C. L., and C. Mishler. 2005. Standard Catalog of World Coins, 32nd ed. * Lane-Poole, S. 1882. The Coinage of Bukhara in the British Museum: The Mangit Dynasty, 74–85. (No AE coins listed). * Torrey, C. C. 1950. “Gold coins of Khokand and Bukhara.” Numismatic Notes and Monographs 117. Modern obsolete currencies Business in Russia Economic history of Russia