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1 Rupee - Muhammad Shah Arcot
| Issuer | Arcot Mint (Nawab of Arcot, under Mughal suzerainty) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1738-1740 |
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| Currency | Rupee |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Persian script legend arranged in multiple horizontal lines across the field, naming the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (r. 1719–1748). The inscription includes the regnal title and the Hijri year, either 1152 or 1153 AH, rendered in Arabic numerals. Decorative floral or dot ornaments separate the lines of text. The script is characteristic of Mughal hammered coinage, with bold, slightly irregular raised lettering. The entire design is contained within a plain round flan with no border beading. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | ١١٥٣ |
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| Additional information |
Muhammad Shah reigned as Mughal emperor from 1719 to 1748, a period during which real imperial authority had collapsed to the point that provincial mints like Arcot operated with near-total autonomy while still striking in the emperor's name. The Nawabs of Arcot — nominally Mughal governors of the Carnatic — used this fiction of suzerainty to legitimize their coinage long after Delhi could enforce nothing south of the Deccan.
These years bracket Nadir Shah's catastrophic 1739 sack of Delhi, after which the pretense of Mughal central control became impossible to sustain even symbolically. Arcot rupees from this precise window are historically loaded for that reason.