1/4 Anna - Shah Jahan Begum

Shah Jahan Begum ruled Bhopal from 1868 to 1901, one of four successive women to govern the state across nearly a century — an unbroken female succession unique in Indian princely history. She was a capable administrator who built extensively in Bhopal and maintained cordial but carefully managed relations with the British Raj. This copper issue was struck across a fourteen-year span, reflecting the slow pace of coinage replacement in smaller princely states where older issues remained legal tender long after new dies were cut.