Gigantic Mughal Mohurs

Found this in my notes!

It was a message from Aman Ur Rahman, a well know mughal coin collector. I am sure you must have seen his recent book on first mughal emperor, "Zahir-uddin Muhammad Babur - A Numismatic Study". I am quoting his message below written in Oct 2004. In first paragraph he mentioned about the two coins assigned to Spink.

Message from Mr. Rahman:
"The Hapsburg coins, both the 9 Kilo piece and the 2 kilo one were given for private placement to Spinks and Son sometime around 1985-86. I was shown the single copy of a book written on the two pieces by Spinks; this leather bound book was the most beautiful numismatic publication ever and, apart from the color plate on each individual part of the poetic couplet on it, had quite some historical notes quoting original sources on such types of Gigantic Coins.

The note that I found most interesting was the claim of the author that the piece had been in the family of the present owner [who remains anonymous to this day] the resources of whose family were such that they found no need to sell the piece through the several centuries of invasions and war in all parts of India. [Hence the speculation that it was the Nawab of Hyderabad] Since Spink were probably unsuccessful, the coins were taken over by Hapsberg to be put to auction. A very lovely 2 page `catalogue' was produced by Hapsburg for this purpose.

My recollection is that soon after the 'catalogue' was published and before the auction date itself, the Indian Government sought a stay on the auction from the Swiss courts on the auction, claiming that these pieces constituted part of Indian heritage and were illegally taken out of the country. The plea was rejected when Hapsburgs were able to produce Bank Documents proving that the two pieces had been in Swiss Vaults since well before WW II. My further recollection is that $20 million was kept as a reserve price for the larger piece and remained unsold as the highest bid was several million Dollars lower.

The actual story can only be told by the Hapsburg people. The second most knowledgeable person would be my friend Andre de Clermont, formerly of Spinks, who worked very closely on this with Hapsburg.

Cheers
Aman ur Rahman
"

Regards,
Ballabh Garg

 

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Hello Folks,

I know this is an old thread, but would like to inform that the sale had actually gone through and the two giant coins in question were consigned by a Nizam of Hyderabad and were sold to a Sheikh of Kuwait and is currently residing in the The al Sabah Collection.

Please take a look at the link below from their museum website.

http://darmuseum.org.kw/the-collections/numismatics/

Hope this would bring the speculations to rest.

Regardless, these are some extremely important pieces of history.

Cheers!

 

And, I was able to get my hands on a copy of the Hapsburg-Feldman produced, two-page catalog (which was prepared by Mr. Bates of ANS) for this auction and it truly is a one of a kind catalog.

 

@arash Can you post pics of the catalog? I checked out the al sabah collection, wow! That 12kg coin must be massive, wish we could see it from a side view!

 

Yes, and a visit to this museum would be breathtaking!


@Mkman123 I am currently travelling so can't click additional pics, but here is a scan of the cover that I could find quickly...will scan some more pages once I am back. Cheers!

 

@arash can't wait for the scans, the cover looks amazing. Glad that its being shown to the public vs sitting in a private vault, amazing coin!