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1/4 Anna - Shah Alam II
| Issuer | Bengal Presidency |
|---|---|
| Year | 1781 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 7.27 g |
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| Obverse description | Central field bears a two-line Persian legend reading 'Shah Alam Badshah' with the AH date 1195 beneath, denoting the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II. The inscription is rendered in a formal Nastaliq calligraphic style. The entire design is enclosed within a raised toothed border that frames the legend neatly against a flat field. |
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| Reverse script | Arabic |
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| Additional information |
Shah Alam II was, by 1781, emperor in little more than name — the East India Company had controlled Bengal's revenues since Clive extracted the Diwani rights in 1765, and the emperor himself would spend years effectively a prisoner under Maratha protection in Delhi. The Bengal Presidency issued coins in his name as a political convenience, maintaining the fiction of Mughal authority while administering a colonial revenue apparatus beneath it.
KM#125 is known with considerable die variation, a predictable consequence of decentralized production across multiple EIC mints in the subcontinent during this period.