178 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [May, 1914. 



127. List Complementary to Mr. Whitehead's " Mint 



Towns of the Mughal Emperors of India. 



? ? 



Since the publication in 1908 of Mr. Nelson Wright's 

 Volume III of the '-Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian 

 Museum ' ' , with its invaluable introduction, no more important 

 contribution has been made to Indian Numismatics, and none 

 could be more welcome than the list, recently issued by the 



the Mint Towns of the Mughal 



i i 



Asiatic Society of Bengal, of 

 Emperors of India." By the preparation of this list Mr. 

 Whitehead has laid all coin-collectors in this country under a 

 deep debt of obligation, for evidently he has spared no pains 

 to ensure that it should be as complete and accurate a list as 

 possible. The material to be explored in order to the produc- 

 tion of so extensive a Coin- Register, running as it does into a 

 hundred pages, was sufficiently formidable, but Mr. Whitehead 

 has fulfilled his self-appointed task with admirable courage and 

 patience. 



The entries, as now arranged, reveal, and at a single 

 glance, for each mint the metals, gold or silver , or copper, 

 in which coins were struck by each of the Emperors, and also 

 indicate some one cabinet in which a specimen of each coin 

 registered is to be found to-day. 



The list of twenty-seven Emperors (claimants included) 

 is noteworthy as containing for the first time the name of 

 'Azimu-sh-shan, son of Shall 'Alam Bahadur and father of 

 Farrukh-siyar; and all who have read Mr. Whitehead's con-; 

 vincing article (No. 103) in Numismatic Supplement No. XX 

 will, I am confident, approve of the inclusion of this name. 

 On the other hand, the name of Niku-siyar no longer has a 

 place in the list, and, inasmuch as no coin of his is known, the 

 omission is, for the present at least, free from objection. A 

 fortunate Wi find " however, mav some day warrant the Re- 

 insertion of Niku-siyar's name, for KJiafl Kh 

 abu-1-Lubab definitely states, 'His accession was an- 

 nounced by peals of cannon, and coins of gold and silver 



i c 



i< 



were struck in his name." ! 



The order adopted in the list of the Emperors is unusual, 

 and will, I fear, fail to win absolute approval. No. 9 Murad 

 Bakhsh and No. 10 Shah Shuja' should surely come before 

 No. 8 Aurangzeb 'Alamgir rather than before No. 11 Shah 

 'Alam Bahadur. Similarly both No. 12 A'zam Shah and 

 No. 13 Kam Bakjjsh should precede, not follow, No. 11 Shah 

 'Alam Bahadur. Also, even though the 'Azimu-sh-shan rupee 

 was in all probability struck by Farrukh-siyar's orders, it 

 should, chronologically considered, stand before rather than 

 after Jahandar's coins, and hence in the list Nos. 14 and H> 



1 Dowaon's Elliot, Vol. VII, page 482. 



