History of Coin
Koch Kingdom

In the early sixteenth century, the Koch tribe established control over the territory of the former Hindu kingdom of Kamata, which had been devastated by Sultan Alauddin Husain Shah of Bengal during his campaigns in the 1490s. As the region had been a predominantly Hindu kingdom for centuries, the new Koch rulers gradually adopted Hindu traditions and were legitimized through Brahmanical rites, marking the transformation of the ruling dynasty into a Hindu monarchy.

The first coins of the Koch kingdom were issued by Maharaja Nara Narayana in Śaka 1477 (AD 1555). Historians differ on whether this date commemorates his accession to the throne or his formal coronation following Brahmanical consecration as a Hindu ruler. The coinage of Cooch Behar closely resembles that of the contemporary kingdom of Tripura in both weight and fabric. This similarity arose because both states adopted the established monetary standard of the Bengal Sultanate, rather than through any direct political or economic relationship between the two kingdoms.