1/2 Rupee - Shah Alam II

Shah Alam II's name appeared on Bengal Presidency coinage long after the Mughal emperor had lost any meaningful authority over Bengal — Clive's victory at Plassey in 1757 had effectively transferred real power to the East India Company, yet the fiction of Mughal suzerainty was maintained on the coinage for decades. The Company held a farman from Shah Alam II granting them diwani rights in 1765, making these coins a peculiar artifact of that arrangement: British-administered silver struck in the name of an emperor who was, by this period, largely a pensioner of his conquerors.

The long date range reflects the frozen regnal year convention used at the Murshidabad mint, where dates did not advance annually.