ONSNL (1994) 142 p. 13

A PATTERN COIN OF RADHANPUR STATE Jan Lingen

Radhanpur State is located on the Kathiawar peninsula. The rulers of Radhanpur, Pathans of the Babi family, rose to high office in the service of Shah Jahan and Murad Bakhsh in Gujarat. In 1693 Jafar Khan obtained the faujdari of Radhanpur and surrounding area. After the death of Aurangzeb, Kamal-ud-din Khan Babi usurped the governorship of Ahmadabad. In 1753 Ahmadabad was taken by the forces of the Marathas. Radhanpur, however, remained in Babi control as a Maratha jagir until 1820 when the state came under British protection. The coinage of Radhanpur has its own peculiar style and is rather different from the coinage of the neighbouring states of Kutch, Baroda and Marwar). Except for copper, all the coinage of this State is machine made and has - except for some of the minor denominations - reeded edges. From the appearance of the coins it seems that the machinery was already secondhand when it was first employed at Radhanpur. The earliest known coins of this State are dated AH1284/AD1867. This issue was struck up to AH1286/AD1869 with a value of 100, resp. 50 falus. A decimal system! This short Hved issue was followed by another with the values of a rupee, 8, 4 and 2 annas. Recently a coin dealer in the Netherlands gave me for identification a box of Oriental coins. It was an accumulation formed over several years; any oriental coin which he could not identify immediately was put in it. Among a wide variety of coins in this box there was a very peculiar silver coin which turned out to be a pattern coin for a proposed currency of Radhanpur. The coin bears a Persian inscription on the obv. and a Nagari inscription on the rev.; details are as follows: metal: silver weight: 3,3 gram, diameter : 19,5 mm edge: plain. Obv.: Malika-i-mo'azzama Queen Victoria Zarb Radhanpur Sanah 1283 (AH) AH 1283 = 16.5.1866 -5.5.1867; VS 1924 = 1867/68 The value ot 25 paisa also indicates a proposal for a decimal coinage, but,instead, the design with Persian legends on both side was adopted, no doubt due to the Mohammadan origin of the rulers of Radhanpur. Similar pattern coins with the value of 50 and 100 paisa might exist as well. Coins with a Persian legend both sides, and with the value of 50, and 100 falus are known (Y.3 & Y.4). No such specimen with the value of 25 falus has as yet turned up. The paisa or falus referred to on the above mentioned coins must be the uniface copper coins of this State, with large Nagari symbol 'Djo' which weigh 9.1-9.5 grams. On the present coin, the family name 'Babi' is given, as on the other silver coins of this state. However, in the Indian Museum Catalogue Vol. IV it has been incorrectly transcribed as 'sani' (= second). I do not know where this pattern coin was produced. It shows some similarity with the coins of the neighbouring state of Kutch, which produced milled coins from 1862 onwards. I do not, however, think it was prepared at the mint of Kutch as there is too much difference in the calligraphy compared to the contemporary coins of this state.