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1/2 Rupee - Ahmed Shah Bahadur Katak mint
| Issuer | Maratha Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1825-1853 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Hammered silver flan bearing a two-line Persian-script legend in the field, reading the royal title and name of the Mughal emperor Ahmed Shah Bahadur. A horizontal dividing line separates the upper and lower registers of the inscription. The legend is rendered in bold Naskh calligraphy characteristic of mid-18th-century Mughal coinage. The field is plain with no additional decorative devices, and the coin retains a slightly irregular flan edge typical of hand-struck production. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Arabic |
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| Additional information |
Ahmed Shah Bahadur was the Mughal emperor whose reign the Marathas continued to cite on their coinage long after real Mughal authority had collapsed entirely — a deliberate political fiction that gave Maratha-struck silver a legitimacy it would otherwise lack in trade. The Katak mint, located in Orissa, operated under Maratha control following their expansion into the region in the mid-eighteenth century, and issues from this facility circulated well into British paramountcy, which explains the remarkably wide date range assigned to this type.
The continued use of a Mughal emperor's name on coins struck decades after his 1806 death is the defining curiosity here.