India - Mughal Empire - Nur-ud-din Jahangir (AH 1014-1037 / AD 1605-1628) - Early imitative re-strike of Lion Zodiac Mohur (month Amardad), Agra, (11.01 g.), dated AH1028/Ry.14 (13-07-1619 to 13-08-1619) - Obv: Lion to right, radiate sun behind / Rev: rooye zar zewar yaft dar agrah / az jahangir shah akbar shah (The face of gold became an ornament in Agra, from king Jahangir (the son of) king Akbar) - XF, not contemporary to Jehangir’s reign, but most likely struck during the middle of he 17th cent. (rf.: type BMC.334; Fr.766; KM 180.9)
Beginning April 1618 (Julian calendar), Jahangir entered in his diary an innovation in coinage “Prior to this, it has been the rule that one side of gold coins my name has been engraved, and on the other side the name of the minting place, the month, and the regnal year. Around this time it occurred to me that instead of the month a figure of the constellation representing the month should be depicted. For example, for the month of Farwardin a figure of Aries could be made, and for the month of Ardibihisht the figure of Taurus, and so on for every month in which a coin was minted one side would bear a picture of the constellation in which the sun rose. This method is peculiarly my own and has never been used before.” (Ref.: The Jahangirnama, translated, edited and annotated by Wheeler M. Thackston, Oxford University Press, 1999.)
After Jahangir’s dead, his son and new emperor Shah Jahan forbid the use of the zodiac coins as well as the coins struck in the name of his mother, Nurjahan and ordered them, on severe punishment of dead penalty, to be returned to the mint.
The gold zodiac mohurs, however, attracted already in the middle of the 17th century the fancy of European collectors and requested via merchants of European trading companies (VOC and others) to obtain if possible a full set of this coin series. Due, however, to the policy of Shah Jahan, the demand could ofcourse not be met and coins got imitated and restruck by the local sarafs. Consequently original zodiac mohurs are rarely offered for sale these days and when offered they go for prices of 6-digits in dollars. This early imitative re-strike can only be differenciated from the originals by the slightly less refined calligraphy of the Persian legend, but is otherwise about identical and still a magnificent model of Jahangir’s famous series of zodiac coins and equally much in demand.