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Mughal: Shah Jahan III, 1759-60, Silver rupee, Shahjahanabad
Weight: 11.33 gm. Diameter: 22 mm Die axis: 3 o'clock
Legend, naming Shah Jahan, including AH date (117)3 ( = 1759-60 CE)
in the second line of the obverse
Legend, including mint name Dar us Sultanat Shahjahanabad (Delhi), and regnal year 1 (ahd)
Ref: KM 475.3
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Shah Jahan III was the great grandson of Aurangzeb, who ruled for less than a year during 1759-60.
This coin has a fascinating history. Shailendra Bhandare (Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society 209) discovered that it was almost certainly struck on
6 August 1760 on the orders of the invading Maratha general Sadashiv Rao, known as Bhau. Bhau had been ordered by the Peshwa to journey north to provide aid to
the beleagured Mughal state in defense against the invading Afghan armies, but he arrived in Delhi short of funds and in arrears to his troops. Accordingly, he ordered
the silver lining on the roof of the Diwan-i-khas,
the "Hall of Private Audience" in Delhi's Red Fort to be stripped off and converted to coin. Apparently 900,000 coins were struck from that silver and this coin is one of those.
Bhandare was able to figure this out by looking at the placement of the AH date on the coin. Note that it is placed here on the second line of the obverse (only the 3 is
visible on the coin), a practice followed by the Marathas while they occupied Delhi. Shah Jahan III's original rupees placed the AH date on the third line of the obverse. So the
silver in this coin at one time adorned the roof of a major hall at the Red Fort!
More late Mughal coins can be seen on the Later Mughals page.
A Note on Image Sizes: On the web, it is impossible to present coin images in their actual sizes, the way they can be in print. Throughout the CoinIndia website,
however, an attempt has been made to present the coins in sizes proportional to one another. Thus a coin that has twice the diameter as another coin will be shown as
double in size (with the exception of the image on this page, which is always shown at this fixed size, no matter what the size of the original coin was). Wherever possible, the actual
diameter (for round coins) or dimensions (for rectangular or oddly-shaped coins) is provided. Of course, enlargements of each coin are available by clicking on the images.
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