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in twenty-eight cities. Great attention was paid to assaying and 

 refining the various metals, and to every department of the mint 

 and treasury. The gold and silver intended for the current coin 

 of the realm, when brought to the greatest degree of purity, was 

 committed to the most celebrated artists, to give each specimen 

 the perfection of beauty. It is well known the coins, medals, and 

 signets of the Mahomedan princes have no portrait or armorial 

 bearings cut on the die from which the coin is to be stamped, as 

 is generally practised in Europe: it is usually impressed with 

 the name of the reigning monarch, the dale of the year in the 

 Hegira, and perhaps some appropriate or flattering title. In the 

 reign of Akber were struck those immense gold masses, distin- 

 guished as the immortal coins : the largest, called sehenseh, weighed 

 upwards of one hundred tolahs, in value one hundred laal jilaly 

 mohurs, not much short of two hundred pounds sterling ; estimat- 

 ing the gold mohur at fifteen silver rupees of half a crown each ; 

 others were of half that value ; from which they diminished to the 

 small round mohur, valued at nine silver rupees; some of these 

 were marked with flowers, especially the tulip and the rose, but 

 never with the representation of any animated form. In the 

 place of such emblems, Akber had moral sentences, tetrastichs 

 from the Persian poets, the praises of the Almighty, or his own 

 titles, engraved on the die in a most beautiful manner. On the 

 sehenseh were these words on one side: 



" The sublime monarch! the most exalted khalif ! May God 

 perpetuate his kingdom and his reign! and increase his justice 

 and righteousness! — " 



On the reverse of the sehenseh : 



