1/2 Paisa - Surat Singh

Surat Singh ruled Bikaner from 1788 to 1828, a period during which the state navigated increasingly fraught relations with Maratha power before accepting British paramountcy under the subsidiary alliance framework in 1818. The copper fractions issued under his name served the lowest tier of local commerce — grain markets, petty trade — and circulated hard enough that surviving pieces in any decent state of preservation are genuinely difficult to source.