Electrotype copy of gold 200
mohur of Shah
Jahan
Original: Mughal dynasty, AH 1064/AD
1653
From Delhi, India
One of the largest coins in The British
Museum
The largest Mughal gold coin ever made was a
1000 mohur of the Mughal
emperor Jahangir (reigned 1605-28). Contemporary observers record
that gold mohurs were
struck in multiples up to 100 and higher, for storage in the
imperial treasury. Several other Mughal emperors also stockpiled
the treasury with gold and silver ingots in the form of enormous
coins, partly as a precaution against theft. Some of these were
presented to ambassadors and thus
survive.
A gold 200
mohur of
Jahangir's son, Shah Jahan (reigned 1628-58), minted at
Shahjahanabad (Delhi) in AH 1064 (AD 1653) was found at Patna in
Bihar, north-east India, in the eighteenth century. It subsequently
disappeared, but this is one of a few copies that are now known.
The Arabic inscription on one side says that the coin was struck by
Shah Jahan, 'the protector of the faith [who] is second in
command [after God] of the constellations [and who minted the coin
in gold] so that the rays of the sun may illumunate the face of the
moon'. The other side gives the Islamic profession of faith
(the shahada), mint and
date, encircled by an inscription citing the achievements of the
first four caliphs (rulers) of Islam: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and
Ali.
Shah Jahan is now best
known, not for his gold coins, but for the Taj Mahal, the palatial
mausoleum he built for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
, 'Sale of two giant Mohur coins' in Auction catalogue 8th (Hapsburg, Feldman S.A., 1987)
J. Orna-Ornstein, The story of money (London, The British Museum Press, 1997)