1/4 Rupee - Shah Alam II [Shivaji Rao]

Indore's quarter rupee issues of this period present a persistent attribution puzzle: though struck in the name of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II, he had died in 1806 — nearly a century before these coins were produced. The practice of retaining long-dead emperors as nominal suzerains on coinage was a legal fiction the princely states maintained well past any political relevance, partly from convention and partly because altering the coin type required British approval that many durbars preferred not to seek.

Shivaji Rao Holkar ruled Indore under close British Residency supervision following his adoption into the Holkar line in 1886.