Madras Mint – Early Coinages – Moghul System – Silver

Rupee – Aurangzeb Alamgir 1658 to 1707 – Mint Name: Chinapatan

Permission to strike rupees was received in 1692 and the coins were known as Madras rupees. The coins were used mainly in Bengal, particularly in the area of Chittagong, whence they were shipped in large numbers.

There is some debate over whether or not AH dates ever appear on these coins. Lingen [1] has undertaken an analysis and this reveals that only two museum catalogues actually record coins with AH dates. However, he did identify one coin in a private collection showing the AH date [2]. The museum coins need to be checked. Lingen’s analysis is summarised below:

Pr.	JL coll	Punjab Museum	Calcutta Museum	Lucknow Museum?	Central Museum Nagpore	British Museum	Private 1	Private 2	Private 3
					1100/33
35						35
					1103/38
					39				39
40	40		40		40	40			40
41			41		41	41	41	41	41
42		42	42	1109/42?	42
	43							43	43
				1112/44
45					45				45
					1112/45
					1112/13 (sic)
					1113/45
					46			46
					1114/47
49			49	49				49	49
	50	50						50	50
51	51		51					51	51

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[1] Conversation published on the SACG, led by Lingen

[2] The 03 of 1103 is visible on the obverse. RY 38 is very clear on the reverse