Recently I find myself drawn to older Indian coins. Unfortunately, I can hardly tell which side is right side-up on these. And I can't read them either. But I still like them. From eBay I bought a lot of 12 dump-type coppers, mostly in the dam/paisa size-range (20 grams or so - at under $2 each I thought this would be a good "educational" lot for me). After a lot of work, I managed to figure out 7 of them. A couple of them are so worn that they are blank. But here are four decent ones that have me stumped. 9.35 grams, 18 mm: 10.79 grams, 18 mm: 19.94 grams, 20 mm - I feel I should be able to get this one - Akbar from Narnol? I just can't find a reasonable visual match, so I'm stumped: 13.78 grams, 19 mm - not much left of this one: Apologies in advance for any upside-down photos and obverse/reverse confusion! Any help much appreciated. Here's the whole lot (seller threw in an extra!):
For that price I'm glad you jumped on. Congrats. I'm reading about South Asian coins generally. Maybe I should check out some lots.
Give it a shot using Valentine: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.97296. Attributing them is a lot of fun. Most are attributable. I can help out with the ones you don’t get.
Hi there, I find myself in a similar predicament, having purchased these at auction, with no idea of what more they are than INDIAN RUPEES; also, "JAIPUR MADHO SINGH ii" connection. Perhaps between us we can decipher MORE?
Thanks for that link Amit - I will see what I can figure out. And you are right - attributing them is the fun part.
That is a terrific batch of rupees you have there. A lot of them have a branch/vine thing on them - that seems to show up a lot on coins of Jaipur. Again, I am an absolute novice at this sort of thing, but here is a link to Numista's Jaipur listings- https://en.numista.com/catalogue/jaipur_princely_state-1.html I always try to find a number on them - then I do a Google image search. Your 13A seems to have a "21" - I found this on numisbid (it is only a 1/4 rupee and yours might be a larger version?): Jaipur, Madho Singh II, Sawai Jaipur Mint, Silver 1/4 Rupee, 21 RY, Obv: ba ahad malika-e-muazzama sultanate-e-inglistan, Rev: ruler's name and jhar mint mark, 2.8g, 15.20mm, (KM # 139), about very fine. https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=3650&lot=405
These old Indian coins are a challenge for a monoglot like me, but I really like how they look (the coppers are very chunky too). Another great thing about them is that they are often very cheap! I like cheap. Which is to say, you should take the plunge!
For the Jaipur ones, see here: https://www.zeno.ru/showgallery.php?cat=2945. The two square coppers are of Bundi, citing George V: https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=56432
Thank you for that tip - indeed, you put me in the right direction. Here's what I came up with (I had trouble reading the date, but it looks like an example on chiefa coins with that AH 906 date. From what I can tell, there are two types, one with one without the mint; since this seems to be below the date, mine either never had a date, or it is off-flan. I think. I'm still very ignorant about these! I also corrected the obverse/reverse orientation of the original photo: India, Delhi Sultanate Æ / Billon Tanka Sikandar Lodi A.H. 906 (1501 A.D.) ? Delhi / No mint? (off flan) Al-mutawakkil 'ala'l rahman.../ Fi-zaman amir al-muminin...Mint: [bi-hadrat Delhi] and date٩٠٦ (906 ?) at bottom. Goron D705 / D706 (no mint) (9.35 grams / 18 mm) Thank you again for your help with this.