TIBET: AR tangka dkarpo sa rpa (4.47g), ND (1953-54), Y-31, YZM 514-515, 26.89mm, Second Monk issue, PCGS graded MS63, ex George Anderson Collection. Formerly it was assumed that these tangkas were distributed to monks on behalf of the 14th Dalai Lama in the late 1940s. The Chinese work by Zhu Jin Zhong et. al., published in 2002, includes illustrations of several pairs of dies and master dies for this type of tangka. Some dies are inscribed with a Tibetan date on the shaft (see Zhong guo xi za ng qia n bi [The Money of Chinese Tibet] Xi zang zi zhi ou qian bi xue hui [Tibet Autonomous Region Numismatic Society], Zhong hua shu ju, Beijing 2002, pp. 225-231). The Tibetans referred to this Tangka as Tangka dkarpo sa rpa ("new white tangka") in order to distinguish it from the normal gaden tangkas. This coin circulated for some time at the value of 5 srang which shows the high inflation rate which was prevailing in Tibet in the 20th Century. In the 19th Century 6½ tangkas were equivalent to 1 srang which corresponded to slightly more than 37 grams of silver. Taking the circulating value of this "Monk" tangka as a base, 1 srang was equal to about 33½ tangkas in 1953-54.