1 Rupee - Mahadji Rao 1768-1794

Gwalior's silver rupees of this period were struck under the authority of Mahadji Scindia, the Maratha chieftain who rebuilt Maratha power in northern India after the catastrophic defeat at Panipat in 1761. By the 1780s he had become the effective kingmaker behind the Mughal throne in Delhi, extracting the title of Regent Plenipotentiary from the blind emperor Shah Alam II in 1784. The coinage reflects this ambiguous political position — nominally issued in the Mughal tradition while underwriting an increasingly autonomous Maratha fiscal administration.