64 C, J. Rodgers —Some Corns of Ranjit Deo . [No. 1, 
The Sikh Misls, twelve in number, were then rising into power, and as 
each one rose, it strove to overpower all the others. In Dehli, a blind 
king was on the throne, and his servants misruled the country on their 
own account, and murdered each other according to their own sweet 
wills. Nevertheless during all this misrule, the coins of the empire 
were struck in the name of that blind king Shah ATam II. I have 
rupees of every year of his struck in Dehli and other places, and he 
reigned 49 years. Some time ago I obtained a rupee of his 24th year. 
The inscriptions on it are (see plate I, fig. 1.) 
Obv. | l q 
Rev. rp &&»» 
This coin I attribute to Ranjit Deo. It was struck as we see at 
Jummoo in the name of Shah ATam. The year is that of the Hejirah, 
and the year of the reign corresponds. Shah Alam’s rupee of the 1st 
year is dated 1174. But he may be said to have commenced his reign 
in 1172. The Dehli rupee I have of his 23rd year is dated 1195 A. H. 
This Jummoo rupee of the 24th year is dated 1196 A. H. The 26th 
year is 1197, the 27th 1199, and the 28th 1200. So that this Jummoo 
rupee takes its place in quite a correct manner in the list. 
It will be noticed how the title of the city “ D&r-ul-Aman ” the 
“ Gate of safety ” agrees with the description of its condition under 
Ranjit Deo as given above by Rai Kanhiya Lai. 
Whether Ranjit Deo acknowledged the sovereignty of Dehli or 
not, I cannot say. His rupee has on it the name of the nominal 
suzerain of India, a name found on all the coins of the East India 
Company and on coins struck at Muhammadabad (Benares), Indarpur, 
Mustaqir-ul- Khil af at Agra, Ahmadnagar Earrukhabad, Muradabad, 
Dehli, Muhammadnagar, Dar-ul-Barakat, Dar us Sarur Saharanpur, 
Najibabad; Barelli, Lutfabad Barelli, Tirath Hurdwar, Muzaffargarh, 
Arcot, Maheswar (=Maisore). I have not yet found a coin of Shah 
Alam II struck in Lahore or in any mint of the Panjab proper. As I 
showed in my paper on “ The Coins of the Sikhs,” the Sikh Common¬ 
wealth commenced striking rupees in A. D. 1765, a practice which 
they continued with few interruptions under their many rulers up to 
A. D. 1849, in Lahore, Amritsar, Multan, Peshawar, Kashmir, &c. 
However shortly after this in the 27th year of Shah ATam II, we 
find Ranjit Deo striking coins at Jummu in his own name, on which he 
uses the Sambat year, but strange to say, still retains the year of the reign 
of Shah Alam, and on which he places the symbol of imperial power—the 
umbrella—so frequently occurring on the coins of that suzerain. 
