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ID Help Request For a Middle Eastern Coin.
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13 posts in this topic

Hi all-

I’ve been doing the old routine I’m sure everyone has heard 10,000 times of going through a box of coins I received through the family grapevine. Most of them I have been able to figure out at least what they are, even if my grading skills are still novice at best. However, this one is eluding me. My Arabic has apparently degraded *far* more than I thought in the past twenty years, and all I can figure out is the date. Which is AH1190 (aka 1776 in the western calendar). At least that’s my understanding.

Starting out will be (what I think is the correct order) of Obverse and Reverse with mono directional ambient lighting (coming in at 45 degrees) white balanced to be as accurate as possible with identical settings on each side. Then there will be, once again, Obv/Rev but with bidirectional lighting from 45 degrees and 225 degrees, again balanced on screen to be as accurate as possible with those lighting elements in person.

I can measure the coin and weigh it if necessary, but I’m primarily looking for a rough ID on this fellow. I know it’s an obscure ask and I appreciate any responses and info.

F2561DCF-512D-465C-A6F5-84351AD6FF8E.thumb.jpeg.0d1fe107c8a9e4ea8de0207bc328038e.jpeg

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The diameter and weight are necessary. However, it is definitely a coin of Shah Alam II, thus Mughal. Date is AH 1195 and the 22 on obverse is probably a regnal year, which would date it to 1802 CE. It's not in MWI, more's the pity, and I don't see it in Krause nor zeno. The lack of a zarb/zuriba indicates to me that it might be something less than fully official.

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Thank you for the response and info @JKK. Far more precise than I was even beginning to hope for. Here are the needed numbers:

Weight: 14.29-14.30gr (my scale couldn’t quite decide about that 0.01g).

Diameter is also in flux since the coin is misshapen. At narrowest points its 23mm~ and at widest it’s 26mm~ (don’t have calipers yet, so going off a metric ruler).

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It's less misshapen than they had been a century before. It's a little heavy for a rupee. I don't see anything that hints to me at Bengal Presidency, and the date I see fits with the name shown, but maybe I'm incorrect about something. Maybe it's my version of Krause, which has a coin (that isn't this one) that says it used to be designated KM #126. The image color looks like silver, but the tarnish (slight, visible under magnification thanks to excellent photos) connotes copper.

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I’m digging around some now that I have such excellent information to work with. It looks like the East India Company may have been minting these in the name of Shah Alam II. At least based on a few coins I found that have essentially the same details, but are much lighter (IE 3-4g). I’m way over my head with all of this though so I’m going to sit down and let the people who know what’s going on decide.

It certainly is interesting though. Thank you everyone.

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Also, if there are any detail zoom photos needed, I can accommodate easily. The files I am working with on my end are roughly 20 times larger than what I can upload to the site, so I have a whole lot of room left to zoom. 

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32 minutes ago, JKK said:

It's less misshapen than they had been a century before. It's a little heavy for a rupee. I don't see anything that hints to me at Bengal Presidency, and the date I see fits with the name shown, but maybe I'm incorrect about something. Maybe it's my version of Krause, which has a coin (that isn't this one) that says it used to be designated KM #126. The image color looks like silver, but the tarnish (slight, visible under magnification thanks to excellent photos) connotes copper.

I believe this is the coin. Listed under India - British, Bengal Presidency, Bengal Coinage. It's page 950/951 of the current 18th century catalog.

km-126.jpg.829bce5d2a3a4e8cb004eb5fa85ff56f.jpg km-127.jpg.de49e4166f7f6c953a94cf7b4982e668.jpg

Edited by gmarguli
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55 minutes ago, gmarguli said:

I believe this is the coin. Listed under India - British, Bengal Presidency, Bengal Coinage. It's page 950/951 of the current 18th century catalog.

km-126.jpg.829bce5d2a3a4e8cb004eb5fa85ff56f.jpg km-127.jpg.de49e4166f7f6c953a94cf7b4982e668.jpg

Looks pretty convincing to me. Thanks for the specifics and assistance.

Edited by JKK
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