1 Cash

The Nawabs of the Carnatic occupied an increasingly uncomfortable political position throughout the 18th century — nominally subordinate to the Nizam of Hyderabad, simultaneously courted and coerced by the British East India Company and French Compagnie des Indes. Local copper coinage like this cash circulated through that contested terrain, used in bazaars from Madras to Arcot while European powers fought proxy wars through successive nawabs. The dynasty effectively ceased independent authority well before 1801, when the British finally formalized control following the death of Nawab Umdat ul-Umara.