1 Rupee - Shah Alam II

Shah Alam II was effectively a prisoner of whoever held Delhi at any given moment — the Marathas, then the British following the Second Anglo-Maratha War in 1803. The East India Company continued striking rupees in his name long after he lost any practical authority, and indeed for several years after his death in 1806. The fiction of Mughal sovereignty was commercially useful: bazaar acceptance of Company coinage depended on it carrying a name the public already trusted.

The prolonged date range of this issue reflects that policy of deliberate monetary conservatism rather than any single extended minting run.