Tipu Sultan introduced a complete calendar reform for Mysore, replacing the Hijri system with his own solar calendar — the Mauludi era — which is why this coin is dated 1215 by a reckoning most contemporary merchants would not have recognized. The reform was part of a broader administrative overhaul that extended to weights, measures, and coinage, all pursued while Tipu was simultaneously managing military campaigns against the British East India Company and their allied states.
KM#73 is among the more frequently encountered of his copper issues, though surfaces on surviving examples tend toward porosity from the alloy composition used at the Patan and Seringapatam mints.
Tipu Sultan introduced a complete calendar reform for Mysore, replacing the Hijri system with his own solar calendar — the Mauludi era — which is why this coin is dated 1215 by a reckoning most contemporary merchants would not have recognized. The reform was part of a broader administrative overhaul that extended to weights, measures, and coinage, all pursued while Tipu was simultaneously managing military campaigns against the British East India Company and their allied states.
KM#73 is among the more frequently encountered of his copper issues, though surfaces on surviving examples tend toward porosity from the alloy composition used at the Patan and Seringapatam mints.