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Moghul Empire – Shāh Jahān – Golkonda Mint, Gold

Actual Weight (g)

Actual Diameter (mm)

Composition

Gold

Catalogue

Cat No.	Photo Link	KM	Denomination	AH	RY	Provenance	Comments	Rarity
JS	2376.	254.3	Mohur	xxxx	x

Moghul Empire – Shāh Jahān – Golkonda Mint, Silver, Type 1, Linear Legends

	Rupee	Half Rupee
Actual Weight (g)
Actual Diameter (mm)
Composition	Silver

Catalogue

Cat No.	Photo Link	KM	Denomination	AH	RY	Provenance	Comments	Rarity
JS	√ 2377.	223.1	Rupee	xxxx	xx	Ste	There seems to be a rather crude type and one with a very fine style.
JS	2378.	214.1	Half Rupee	xxxx	5

Moghul Empire – Shāh Jahān – Golkonda Mint, Silver, Type 2, Square Area

Actual Weight (g)

Actual Diameter (mm)

Composition

Silver

Catalogue

Cat No.	Photo Link	KM	Denomination	AH	RY	Provenance	Comments	Rarity
JS	√ 2378m.		Rupee	1045	9	Bhandare	See photos for a discussion concerning this coin	RRR

In his article ‘The Gulkanda Rupees of Shah Jahan’ (chapter 20, pp.272-274, ed. Sanjay Garg), S. H. Hodivala presented a case for coins in the name of Shah Jahan being struck in the year AH1045 on the basis of two letters mentioned in the ‘Badshahnama’ of Abdul Hamid Lahori, Written in the “most florid and artificial style affected by cultured Persians in official correspondence”, in which Qutb ul-Mulk (the Mughals refused to call him ‘Qutb Shah’!) promises that he will have the Khutba read in the Emperor’s name and –

'paiwastah bar zar surkh wa safed sikkeh-i-mubarak' - "On red money and the white (gold and silver)“ will always be stamped with the auspicious coin-legend, which has been engraved and sent to me from the Court which is the Asylum of the Universe”.
This also finds mention in the treaty concluded between the two rulers in AH1045, where Shahjahan acknowledges the fact that “…[Qutb ul-Mulk] has promised that the faces of dirhams and dinars (silver and gold coins) shall be adorned with our auspicious coin-legend and that in all parts of his kingdom… money will be stamped with our auspicious name”.

The background of this treaty was the renewed nuisance posed by Shahaji Bhonsle, who had resurrected the Nizamshahi sultanate by elevating a boy to a putative ‘throne’. The Emperor therefore sent written commands to the Sultans of Golkonda and Bijapur to abstain from supporting Shahaji and his allies and to pay tributes regularly in recognition of Mughal suzerainty. Abdullah, the Sultan of Golkonda had already felt the Mughal wrath in 1629 and unable to resist the Mughal might, quietly acquiesced to these demands. When Abd al-Latif the Mughal envoy approached Golkonda, “Sultan Qutb ul-Mulk came forth 5 kos to receive him and conducted him to the city in great honour. He had the Khutba read aloud in the Emperor’s name; he several times attended when it was being read and bestowed gifts upon the reader, and he had coins struck in the Emperor’s name and sent them to the Court” (quoted from Badshahnama).

The interesting mention here is that Qutb ul-Mulk says that the “auspicious coin legend” had been “sent to him from the Court”. This is a clear reference that the dies were engraved in a Mughal atelier and then sent to the Qutbshahi capital. This is in accordance with the good standards of calligraphy evident on this coin. Hodivala himself was not aware of a coin struck in AH1045, but this coin proves him right!