Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

COINS

WORLD'S LARGEST &

handicrafts. The Rupee coinage system of Sher Shah Suri was accepted by the British and even today in our Republic the name Rupee is used in our currency system. Babur was the first ruler of the Mughals, but the most popular Mughal Emperor was Akbar. He issued coins in gold, silver and copper. He also introduced the quoting of the Kalima and having Caliphs names on the coins. Being a secular Emperor he issued

coins in gold bearing the portraits of Lord Rama and Sita (Fig-11). He also issued gold coins of 5 Mohairs de- nominations. His Mehrabi coins are very popular. However, full credit must be given to his son Emperor Jehangir for creating numismatic history. He issued gold and silver coins depicting the name of the month and the appropriate zodiac sign. He issued gold coins bearing his own portrait to be presented to his fa- vourites. He was also responsible for minting of the world’s largest coins of the denomination of 200, 500 and 1000 Mohurs in gold. During the of his reign he authorised his wife Noorjahan to mint coins in her own name. The coins

Obverse

bore the couplet “By order of Shah Jehangir gold attained a hundred beauties when the name of Noorjahan Badshah Begum was placed on it.” His children Shah Jahan and his grandson Au- rangzeb continued the tradition of issue of coinage like their fa- thers.

Abu'l-Muzaffar/ Nur al-din Muhammad Jahangir/ Badishab Ghazi

Hazar gune sharef yaft/ ry-yu sakka wa zer

Father of the Victorious Radiance of the Faith Muhammad Jahangir Emperor Warrior

The face of die and gold receive a thousand kinds of honour

SHER SHAH’S RUPEE

Our currency unit the Rupee as we know it today is the product of the great administrative genius Sher Shah Suri. The rupee from

1540 A.D. (Fig-12) onwards came to be widely accepted as standard coin throughout India. Sher Shah's cur- rency reforms deserve very high praise as it transformed the Indian economy of that time. He issued a large number of new silver coins and abolished all old and mixed metal cur- rency. His silver Rupee was a trend setter and the predecessor to the coins of Mughal and British India. The denomination or the name Rupee was retained by the British rulers of India and also the Republic of India, which adopted the Rupee as its official cur- rency after Independence.

Zi naqisb nam Jahangir Shah/ Shah Akbar

’Ajab nabashad/ agar zad-i-zawaj skka ader

From the design of the name of Jahangir Shah Son of Shah Akbar

It would not be strange if bom from the marriage of die and fire

Minted in 1613 in Agra during the reign of Emperor Jehangir. The weight of the coin is 11935.8 grams, diameter 210 mm, die axis 22. The inscriptions are in Persian and Arabic. The coin was presented to Shah Abu-d-din Khan Bahadur by Emperor Aurangzeb for the valuable services rendered by him in conveying grain to the army of Prince Muhammad Azam who was besieging Bijapur and routing P. Naik, the Baidur Chief of Saggar, who had attacked him on the way. Shah Abu-d-din was the father

Currency Break-up

Medieval India

4 pice = 1 Anna 64 pice = 16 Annas = 1 Rupee 64 pice = 1 Rupee

Modern India 100 paise = 1 Rupee (Post 1957)