1 Rupee - Nawab Sikandar Begum

Sikandar Begum ruled Bhopal as one of the few sovereign Muslim women in 19th-century India, receiving formal recognition from the British Crown following her loyalty during the 1857 rebellion — a loyalty rewarded with a personal visit to England in 1863, where she became the first Indian ruler to meet Queen Victoria in person. Bhopal's female succession was itself an anomaly preserved by deliberate treaty, the state's founding nawab having decreed matrilineal rule specifically to keep British interference at bay.

The rupee series struck under her authority spans over two decades, with subtle die variations distinguishing earlier from later issues.