1/2 Rupee - Shah Alam II

Shah Alam II was the Mughal emperor in whose name the East India Company struck coinage across its presidencies for decades — a political fiction maintained long after the Company held the real power. By 1801, Shah Alam had been blinded by the Afghan warlord Ghulam Qadir in 1788 and was effectively a pensioner of the Marathas, then the British. Bombay Presidency continued issuing in his name regardless, as disrupting the familiar coinage would have complicated trade and local acceptance.

The regnal year on these pieces follows the Hijri calendar reckoning from Shah Alam's accession in 1759, not the Gregorian date of striking.