★ A BEAUTIFUL ZODIACAL MOHUR WITH GREAT PROVENANCE ★

LE MONDE ARABE
India - Mughal Empire
Nur al-Din Muhammad Jahangir, AH 1014-1037 (1605-1627 CE). AV Mohur Zodiac constellation of Varak/Mesha (Aries - the Ram), AH 1028, regnal year 14 (December 1618 - October 1619 CE), Agra. Ram, head right, running to left with radiate sun behind, below "Sana 14 Julus" in Persan / Name of Jahangir, son of Akbar, Mint and AH date in Persan. 10,89g. BMC Mughal 322; KM 180.1; Fr. 762 (this coin illustrated); Liddle Jahangir Type G74.

Extremely fine.

Collections of Philipp von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha (not in the Hamburger sale).
Collection of John Work Garrett, auction Leu/NFA part 1 (May 1984), 477 (purchased from Max Schulman, 11 November 1928).
Schweizerischer Bankverein 30 (Septembre 1992), 2784.
Collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams, auction CNG Triton XIX (January 2016), 2399.
Royal Collection, auction NGSA 11 (November 2019), 35.

The Emperor Jahangir’s decision to strike a zodiacal coinage can be explained by his belief that everything should be done in accordance with the advice of his astronomers. Jahangir records in the diary that he kept for many years: “Previously to this, the rule of the coinage was that on one face of the metal they stamped my name and on the reverse the name of the place and the month and year of the reign. It entered my mind that in place of the month they should substitute the figure of the constellation which belonged to that month... The usage is my own, and has never been practiced until now.” The zodiacal gold mohurs are known for all twelve signs of the zodiac. Jahangir’s thirteenth regnal year began on the first day of Farwardin, when the sun entered Aries, but it was not until the twenty-third day of that month that he decreed that the zodiacal coins were to be struck. Jahangir made his state entry into the town of Ahmadabad, the capital of Gujarat, in the second month, Ardibihisht, when the sun had been in Taurus for seven days, and he left in the fifth month, Amardad, when the sun was in Leo. He then stopped in Fathpur because plague had broken out in Agra, and the first gold zodiacal coin was struck in the month of Bahman with the sign Pisces. From then on these mohurs were issued at the ruler’s pleasure, mostly from the mint of Agra, between AH 1028 and 1034 (1618-1625 CE).