2016-12-03 Sat

Sher Shah Suri (AH 945-952; AD 1538-1545) was the founder of Suri empire. He was the son of Small Afgan Jagirdar near Jaunpur. He was given the title of “Sher Khan” after he killed a tiger. He defeated Humayun and took over the Mughal Empire.

He had issued coins in gold, silver and copper. The obverse side of the coin has the name of the ruler written two times: once in Persian and once in Nagari. The Nagari legend is usually found at the bottom and the Persian legend is written either in square or in circle.

One of his silver rupee was listed at INR 15,000 – INR 18,000 with Todaywalla Auction, held in Nagpur on 26th January 2014. This coin is known as Al-Mutawakkit type. This silver rupee minted in Qila shergarh weighs around 11.4gm.

The obverse of this coin reads as “Al-Mutawakkil Ala Ilaj Al-Rahman Abul Muzaffar Sher Shah Shah Sultan” within the square, name of the sultan Sher Shah written in Nagari at the bottom in the margin and “Farid al-dunya Wa Al Din Khallada Allah Mulkahu wa Sultanahu” with mint name written on the remaining three sides. Whereas, on the reverse side coin reads as Shahada “la ilaha illallah muhammadur rasulullah” written within the square, and the name of the four caliphs “Abu Bakr Al-Sadiq umar Al-Faruq Uthman Al-Affan Ali Al-Murtada” written in the margin. This coin is very rare.