Bharatpur Mint – Jaswant Singh - Takka

An unusual uniface takka of Bharatpur Native State.

I have recently seen and photographed an unusual Bharatpur State uniface takka, which has been overstruck on a much earlier takka of the same state, in about 1871AD, by which time currency production in the territory of the Bharatpur Jats had almost ceased. It has been circulating for some time among dealers, so please excuse me if you are already familiar with it. I am not aware that it has been properly published yet. It appears to be a genuine piece, and must be rare.

The coin in question is a copper takka of about 16.8g., the host coin having been issued in about AH1212 (the final 2 of this date is just visible, though somewhat uncertain) in the 18^th regnal year of Jaswant Singh (AH 1269 to 1311, 1853 to 1893 AD), which corresponds with AH 1286, or 1871AD. The obverse legends are evenly and incompletely obliterated by the overstriking process and remain legible, but the reverse legends have been lost entirely. The legible parts of the legend indicate that it was probably of the type called KM.11 by Krause, and it may be dated AH (121)2. This is about 1797AD, and if this is so, the coin was over 70 years old at the time of its reuse. The legends on the host coin are the “Badshah Ghazi” legends of Shah Alam II.

This type of takka must have been relatively scarce in 1871AD, and the more commonly available type would have been the narrower, thicker coin (called KM.101 in the Krause catalogues) which must have been stuck in great quantity, judging by the number that have survived, until about 1864/65 AD. It seems likely that the overstrike die was prepared for use on these later coins, because its diameter is about 17mm., which is a close fit for many of those more recent coins.

The legend on the overstruck side is clear, and the die has been engraved in relatively good Persian characters and script, and reads, from top to bottom “Maharaja Jaswant Singh (RY) 18”

Maharaja Jaswant Singh succeeded to the gaddi while he was very young, in 1853AD (AH 1269), and was given full ruling powers in March of 1871AD (AH 1286), in his 18^th regnal year. It is therefore an inescapable conclusion that this coin was struck to commemorate that event. The fact that it was probably never intended to be a currency issue may well explain both why it was not struck in great numbers, and why it was struck at all.

It seems probable that the striking of copper coins had ceased, or nearly so, by then, as only a few silver coin types, and none in copper, are known after that date. The reuse of old coins for this limited issue would overcome some possible difficulties for the mint authorities, such as the procurement of copper bullion, melting or hammering that bullion into sheets, and cutting out and preparing the required number of blanks. In addition, the use of a uniface design would halve the number of dies required. Any or all of these considerations may have weighed on the minds of those mint authorities at the time.

Note: I would like to record my thanks to Shailendra Bhandere for confirming the authenticity of this piece, and for his other remarks, which assisted in the preparation of this short note.

From Barry Tabor