Shah Alam II was the Mughal emperor in name only for much of his reign — effectively a pensioner of whichever power happened to control Delhi at the time, whether Maratha, Afghan, or British. The Marathas struck coins in his name as a matter of political convenience, maintaining the fiction of Mughal suzerainty while exercising real authority themselves. Ahmadabad, a major commercial center in Gujarat, came under Maratha control in 1758 and remained a productive mint for the confederation until the British displaced them following the Second Anglo-Maratha War.
Shah Alam II was the Mughal emperor in name only for much of his reign — effectively a pensioner of whichever power happened to control Delhi at the time, whether Maratha, Afghan, or British. The Marathas struck coins in his name as a matter of political convenience, maintaining the fiction of Mughal suzerainty while exercising real authority themselves. Ahmadabad, a major commercial center in Gujarat, came under Maratha control in 1758 and remained a productive mint for the confederation until the British displaced them following the Second Anglo-Maratha War.