2017-10-21 Sat

History mostly highlights only those sons of the emperor who became their successor. Hardly the other children are mention but numismatics gives you a chance to understand the political atmosphere of that time through coinage. It gives a change to understand and reflect both sides equally. So let’s learn about another son of Shahajahan other than Emperor Aurangzeb.

Murad Baksh was the youngest son of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. He was born in year 1624, being the youngest made him favourite of his elder sibling. In the year 1642 he was appointed as shubedar of Multan.He was also the shubedar of Balkh, until he was replaced by his elder brother Aurangzeb in 1647. In 1657, Murad Baksh declared himself Emperor at Ahmadabad.

He issued coin is gold, silver and copper. This silver half rupee issued by him weighs around 5.7g. The obverse of the coin reads as ‘Giraft irs Ze Sahib Qiran Jahan-e-Muhammad Sikandar Sani Murad Shah’. The reverse of the coin reads as ‘Kalima’ and the mint name ‘Surat’.

This extremely rare silver half-rupee coin was sold for INR 1,40,000 by Todywalla Auctions.