Jahangir, Silver Square Rupee, 10.84g, Nominative type, Agra Mint, with decorative borders and without Ilahi Month, AH 1020/ RY 6. Tiny dent on obverse otherwise very fine, exceedingly rare.
Jahangir showed an intimate affinity towards his coinage, experimenting with great interest with typology, design, weight standards and other visual and circulatory innovations. Soon after his ascent to the throne, he revised the weights of his coins upwards, first by 20% and then by 25%. A series of extremely attractive coins followed from principle mints in the Empire, like Agra and Lahore. For silver rupees, the shape alternated between round and square for each month. However, in his 6th regnal year, on the date 11 Ardibihisht AH1020, the heavier standards were abolished. The most immediate issues after the abolishment were square (the shape current for the month of Ardibihisht) but without the mention of the month. Successive issues, for the next month Khurdad, were round and did refer to the month’s name in the legends. This coin, therefore, is of a type that was struck for the 18 remaining days of the Ardibihisht month, after the heavy standards were called off.