The Sikh Empire's copper coinage was issued from the Lahore mint under the authority of the Khalsa Dal — the collective sovereignty of the Sikh brotherhood — rather than any individual ruler, a deliberate ideological position maintained even as Maharaja Ranjit Singh consolidated personal power. By 1843–44, the empire was in rapid collapse: Ranjit Singh had died in 1839, and the kingdom lurched through four rulers in five years amid court assassinations and Dogra factional manipulation. This falus entered circulation in the final months before the First Anglo-Sikh War broke out in December 1845.
The Sikh Empire's copper coinage was issued from the Lahore mint under the authority of the Khalsa Dal — the collective sovereignty of the Sikh brotherhood — rather than any individual ruler, a deliberate ideological position maintained even as Maharaja Ranjit Singh consolidated personal power. By 1843–44, the empire was in rapid collapse: Ranjit Singh had died in 1839, and the kingdom lurched through four rulers in five years amid court assassinations and Dogra factional manipulation. This falus entered circulation in the final months before the First Anglo-Sikh War broke out in December 1845.