[No. 1, 
2G C. J. Rodgers —Couplets on the coins of Jahangir. 
(I strongly suspect they got more than a penny a line) could patch up 
into a couplet the king’s name and titles, and that of the mint town, 
and sometimes of the month. They show culture of a certain kind, 
though certainly not of a high or elevating order. They are pure ori¬ 
ental flattery. I daresay there are in other collections rupees and 
mohurs bearing other couplets. I have had access to few cabinets other 
than my own, which represents the meagre collection made by me in 
twenty years. 
I wish I could have given figures of the coins. They (the coins) are 
in my opinion better made than those of any other Muhammadan 
country, except perhaps the coins of the early Khalifahs and those of 
Muhammad Tughlaq. As a rule each side of the coin has one line of 
the couplet on it. There was ample room. In some cases, however, 
both the lines come on one side. Even then every letter is perfect. 
It is evident die-sinking and seal-cutting were arts in which the artists 
of Jahangir’s time excelled. 
The couplet went out of fashion on coins in the time of Shah Jahan. 
Aurangzib revived it and Jaliandar Shah and Rafi’u-d-Darajat and 
’Azirn Shah, and Kam Bakhsh and the blind Shah ’Alam used couplets, 
as did the Durranis. 
On a zodiacal rupee of Jahangir, an imprint of which was made by 
General Cunningham at Lucknow in 1840, and which is now in my 
possession I find the following quite new couplet:— 
t • r a j 
i. e., ‘ The gold coin became bright at Fathpur through the light of 
the name of Jahangir Shah, (the son) of Akbar Shah, 1028.’ 
The reverse has under the sign of the zodiac—the goat, Capricornus, 
This coin is in every way remarkable. It is the only zodiacal coin 
struck at Fathpur that I know of. All given in Marsden were struck 
at either Agra or Ahmadabad. It is not a forgery, for the letters, the 
weak point in forgeries, are as beautiful as those on the very best coins 
of Jahangir. 
