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1 Rupee - Shah Alam II Surat Mint
| Issuer | Surat Mint (East India Company) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1809-1812 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Rupee (1 Roupie) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | شاه عالم بادشاه / دام اقبال |
| Reverse description | The reverse displays the Julus formula in Persian Nastaliq script, recording the regnal year (RY) of Shah Alam II alongside the AH date, struck across the full field in multiple lines. The mint name Surat (سورت) appears within the legend, with the regnal year numeral prominently rendered in the central field. The overall design is characteristic of late Mughal hammered rupees produced at the Surat mint under East India Company supervision, with bold raised lettering on an irregular flan. |
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| Additional information |
Surat was among the earliest footholds of the East India Company on the subcontinent, but by the early nineteenth century the mint there was already an anachronism — operating under the legal fiction of Mughal imperial authority long after that authority had effectively collapsed. These rupees were struck in the name of Shah Alam II, who had been blinded and humiliated by the Afghan warlord Ghulam Qadir in 1788 and ruled as a pensioner of the Marathas, then the Company itself, until his death in 1806.
The coins continued to be issued posthumously under his regnal formula, a common Company practice to avoid disrupting trade confidence in established coin types. Surat mint closed permanently in 1815.