1 Paisa - Loharu Imitation

Loharu was a small princely state in the Punjab hills whose nawabs operated under increasingly tight British oversight through the nineteenth century. These copper paise were not struck by Loharu itself but were cast or struck as local imitations of Mughal-derived types still circulating across the region — a practice common among minor states that lacked formal mint authorization but needed low-denomination coinage to function commercially. The reference designation as an "imitation" reflects that ambiguity: attribution to Loharu rests on find-spot evidence and typological comparison rather than any explicit mint documentation.