Description
British East India Company, the Bengal Presidency, Gold Half Mohur (6.15g, 21.5mm), ‘frozen’ AH 1202 regnal year 19, naming ‘Murshidabad’, struck at Calcutta mint circa 1793-1818 AD in the name of Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. Obverse: Legend in Persian, naming the emperor and Anno Hegirae year, “sikka zad bar haft kishwar sāya fazl ilāh hāmī dīn Muhammad shāh ‘ālam bādshāh, 1202”. Reverse: Legend as obverse, naming ‘Murshidabad’ and regnal year, “zarb murshīdābād sanah 19 julūs maimanat mānūs”. Edge: Oblique right grain milling. Stevens-4.5; Prid-63; Friedberg-1538. Certified and graded by NGC as Almost Uncirculated 58 (includes unique design for the Puddester collection on the encapsulation). With hints of charming red toning through the devices, reminiscent of the Boscoreale hoard of gold Aureii, few minor contact marks otherwise a very nice example and a scarcer denomination compared to the full mohur.
Provenance: Robert R. Puddester Collection, Part I, Noonans of Mayfair.
The obverse Persian legend 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 has an English translation of “Struck at Murshidabad in the 19th year of his reign of tranquil prosperity”.
Although the gold Mohur was the chosen money piece mentioned within the Australian Proclamation document of 1800 by Philip Gidley King, the Governor of New South Wales, the fractionals and higher denominations are accepted as part of the ‘wider series’. Therefore, within Colonial Australia, the quarter Mohur had a theoretical revaluation to 18 Shillings 6 Pence.