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1 Paisa - Shah Alam II
| Issuer | Narwar, Princely state of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1791-1827 |
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| Composition | Copper |
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| Reverse description | The reverse field is filled with a multi-line Persian inscription in Naskh script, arranged across the flan and divided by a horizontal line. The legend records the regnal year of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II together with a depiction of a katar (Indian push dagger), which serves as the mint or issuer symbol of the Narwar princely state. The katar appears either horizontally or vertically depending on the die variety. The overall style is characteristic of locally struck hammered copper coinage of the late Mughal period. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Narwar was a small Bundela Rajput state in what is now Madhya Pradesh, nominally subordinate to the Maratha Confederacy through much of this period. Coins struck there in the name of Shah Alam II are a bureaucratic fiction of the late Mughal system — the emperor had been effectively blind and a pensioner of the Marathas since 1788, three years before the earliest date of this issue's production run.
The practice of invoking his regnal authority on provincial copper persisted for decades past any real imperial reach, sustained entirely by convention rather than political reality.