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1 Paisa - Sher Shah Suri
| Issuer | Sur Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1540-1545 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Reverse field bearing a sparse Arabic-script legend in two or three horizontal registers, struck on a broad but irregularly shaped copper flan. The inscription is rendered in a cruder hand than the obverse, with shallower relief and less definition, consistent with the secondary die of hammered Sur Empire copper issues. A faint horizontal line divides the field, separating the upper and lower portions of the legend. Heavy encrustation and verdigris patination partially obscure the text. The plain edge and irregular planchet are typical of the provincial copper coinage struck under Sher Shah Suri. |
| Reverse script | Arabic |
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| Edge | Log in to see details |
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| Additional information |
Sher Shah Suri's copper paisa sits within one of the most consequential monetary reforms in pre-Mughal South Asia. Having ousted Humayun in 1540, Sher Shah overhauled a fragmented coinage system, standardizing weights and metals across a fractured subcontinent — a reform so effective that Akbar later built the Mughal system directly on its foundations. The Sur reign lasted only fifteen years total, with Sher Shah himself dying in a gunpowder accident at Kalinjar in 1545.
Five years of production compressed into a single reign makes clean attribution by regnal year nearly impossible for most copper issues.