Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1/4 Ashrafi - Mir Usman Ali Khan
| Issuer | Hyderabad Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919-1948 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 2.794 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central view of the Charminar monument of Hyderabad, constructed in 1591, rendered in fine detail with its four minarets prominently flanking the central arch gateway. Arabic legends appear to the left, right, and above the monument in the field, with the Hijri date inscribed in Arabic numerals along the lower exergue. The coin's reeded border frames the composition, and the denomination numeral appears within the central arch of the structure. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | حيدرآباد |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Hyderabad under Mir Usman Ali Khan, the last Nizam, was one of the wealthiest states in British India — possibly the wealthiest entity on earth by some contemporary estimates. The princely state maintained its own mint, currency, postal system, and railway, operating with a degree of financial autonomy that few nominally subordinate territories ever achieved. Gold coinage continued being struck at Hyderabad long after most Indian princely states had abandoned the practice.
This fractional Ashrafi was minted across a span that ended not with monetary reform but with military force: the Indian Army's Operation Polo in September 1948, which absorbed Hyderabad into the Indian Union within five days.