Description
British East India Company, the Bengal Presidency, Gold Half Mohur (6.15g, 22mm), ‘frozen’ Hijri Year 1202, regnal year 19, Calcutta mint (named ‘Murshidabad’) circa 1825-1830 AD, struck in the name of Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. Obverse: Legend in Persian, naming the emperor and Hijri year, transliterated as “sikka zad bar haft kishwar sāya fazl ilāh hāmī dīn Muhammad shāh ‘ālam bādshāh, 1202”. Reverse: Legend as obverse, naming ‘Murshidabad’ and regnal year, transliterated as “zarb murshīdābād sanah 19 julūs maimanat mānūs”. Edge: Left grain milling. Stevens pg. 88 (missing in book). A nice fractional Bengal mohur and part of the extended Australian proclamation series, certainly scarcer then its full mohur counterpart, a later issue that revitalized the higher purity gold and the lower weight, good Extremely Fine.
The obverse Persian legend is stated in full and has an English translation of “defender of the religion of Muhammad, Shah ‘Alam Emperor, Shadow of the divine favour, put his stamp on the seven climes”. The reverse Persian legend is stated in full and has an English translation of “struck at Murshidabad in the 19th year of his reign of tranquil prosperity”.
The Mohur was a standard gold coin minted throughout early-modern history of the Indian sub-continent, beginning in the 16th century and was struck to several weight standards over time, ranging from 10.98 grams to 12.30 grams. During the time of the Mughal Empire, the mohur was adopted and standardized with other metals, namely the silver rupee and the bronze anna, and had an exchange rate of fifteen rupees to a mohur (a Mughal rupee was struck to a weight of 11.53g of silver). Although an Indian coin struck by the British East India Company in their administrative sub-division of the Bengal Presidency, the Hijri year 1202 gold Mohur was one of the monetary denominations chosen by Philip Gidley King, the Governor of New South Wales, for the Australian Money Proclamation of 1800 – Australia’s first monetary system. In order to retain coinage within the Australian colonies, each ‘Proclamation coin’ was given a high face value – the Gold Mohur was revalued to One Pound Seventeen Shillings Six Pence (37/6), a notably high face value when compared to spending the mohur within England. Although not specifically mentioned on the proclamation, the fractional denominations of the mohur, the half and quarter, are considered part of the ‘wider proclamation series’ – therefore, a Gold Half Mohur had a theoretical revaluation to Eighteen Shillings Nine Pence.