Summary

1 Rupee, Issued by East India Company, Bengal, India, 1229 AH; RY 17 and 49 (AD 1812-1815)
Minted by Muhammadabad Banaras

Obverse Description

Persian legend (some off flan) with fish and sun and date 1229

Reverse Description

Persian legend (some off flan) with RY dates 17 and 49

Edge Description

Plain

Significance

The obverse of the coins has the Hijri year 1229 and the reverse the two regnal years (RY) a frozen 17 and 49. The East India Company had insisted on the frozen RY 17 to stop the coins being devalued when a new RY year appeared in circulation. The intention seems to have been miss understood, although the frozen 17 was complied with, the correct RY dating was continued until the death of the Emperor in RY 49 after which this date too was frozen. Shah Alam II died on 18 November 1806 and the same design of the coins was continued with all three dates now frozen until this issue (struck with new machinery?) from 1812. The new coin have broader flans with near the full impression of the die but do continue with the same frozen dates. In February 1815 a new mint at Banaras introduced further technical improvements which saw the full impression of the die appear on the coins produced.

These coins were called Machhlidar (head of a fish) rupees because their design includes a fish, a badge adopted by Sadat Khan who, shortly before being appointed Subahar of Oudh in 1720, while praying with outstretched arms beside the river Jumma, had a fish leap from the water into his hands. Although the dies depicted a full fish, in most cases, until 1815, only the head half appeared on the coins.

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