Dicholi Mint

Coins were issued from the Dichloi mint by:

Moghuls

Aurangzeb (but probably Maratha)

History

Not sure about distinguishing between Wadi, Nipani, Dicholi and Chikodi

Posted on SACG by Satya:

In ONS 188, Shailen wrote an article labeled "The Rajapur mint and coinage in South Konkan in the late 17th to the early 18th centuries: some observations".

In this article, he discusses towards the end, Aurangzeb rupees from Dicholi. He attributes a coin with Aurangzeb ry 35 to Dicholi. Then he discusses a coin dated ry 36 or 37 (2nd digit missing) which has the Dicholi mint name in the normal manner, and says a regnal year 41 coin of the same type served as the prototype for various Maratha mints such as sawantwadi, nipani, kapsi, mudhol etc.

I have uploaded a dicholi coin of Aurangzeb clearly dated ry 31, in the Photos section in "Satya" directory, link is:http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/southasia-coins/photos/view/e08d?

My question is quite simple:

If there was an Aurangzeb Dicholi rupee dated ry 31 of the "normal" style that I've uploaded, and again there were rupees of ry 36/37 of the "normal" style also of Dicholi, why would there be a reason to have an "abnormal" rupee of quite different calligraphy in an interim ry 35? Just based on this, and in light of the rupee scan I've uploaded, I am inclined to say the ry 35 that Shailen thought would be from Dicholi, is probably not, and remains unread???

Posted on SACG by S Bhandare:

Firstly, thanks for uploading the RY 31 rupee of Dicholi with the 'normal' layout - this is indeed the earliest of the RYs I have seen for Dicholi and as such a very welcome addition to our knowledge. As for why the legend layout was changed only for RY 35 - with 'Dicho' written after 'Julus' and the 'Li' inscribed in the 'lazy' form above 'Zarb' - one could only speculate. Mt opinion is there is a chance that these rupees may have been issued by different authorities under different circumstamces. But I would not regard the change in the layout alone to doubt the reading of the mint-name as 'Dicholi'.

So far, only two pieces of the RY 35 Dicholi rupee are known to me. One is the piece which I published in JONS 188, which is now in the Ashmolean Collection and the other is a piece illustrated as #2278 of the Nagpur Museum catalogue, amongst various other unattributed coins. (Incidentally, the plate also shows many more of the so-called 'Maratha' issues in the name of Aurangzeb which we discussed a few weeks ago on the group).

Although the Ashmolean coin is in an overall better state of preservation, the Nagpur coin shows the crucial bit of the mint-name very clearly. This is the second letter-form 'cho' which is not very clearly visible on the Ashmolean specimen. I have uploaded a picture of the Nagpur coin (thanks to a scan sent by Stan), annotated with an arrow to point out the 'cho'. Judging by this, there is no doubt in my mind that the mint-name on the coin is indeed 'Dicholi'.