1⁄16 Rupee - Shah Alam II

Shah Alam II was, by the 1770s, a Mughal emperor in name only — held effectively captive by the Marathas after fleeing British-controlled territory, his authority so diminished that coins struck in his name by the Bengal Presidency were instruments of Company commerce rather than imperial sanction. The East India Company continued issuing in his regnal style long after it bore any meaningful relationship to Mughal sovereignty, a fiction maintained because Indian bazaar trade demanded familiar currency forms.

KM#80.2 distinguishes itself from the .1 variety by die alignment. The fractional denomination served local retail transactions where full rupees were simply too large.