1 Rupee - Shah Alam II Indore Feudatory - Sironj

Shah Alam II reigned nominally as Mughal emperor for nearly four decades, yet spent much of that time as a political prisoner, a pensioner of the Marathas, or a blind figurehead after Ahmad Shah Durrani's forces devastated Delhi in 1788. Feudatory issues struck in his name — including those from the Indore-administered Sironj tract — reflect less any imperial authority he exercised than the Maratha practice of legitimizing regional coinage through a convenient but powerless imperial cipher.

Sironj, a market town in present-day Madhya Pradesh, sat on trade routes that made local silver coinage practically necessary.