1885.] 0. d. Rodgers— The Coins of Ahmad Shah Abddllu 
67 
The Coins of Ahmad Shah Ahddlli or Ahmad Shah Durrani,—By Chas. 
J. Rodgees, Principal , Normal College 5 Amritsar. 
(With Plate II.) 
The Panjab, the Border land of India has been invaded oftener 
than any other country in the whole world. The more than dozen 
incursions of Mahmud of Gazni, the five or six of Muhammad Gori> 
the terrible visitation of Taimiir, the plundering expedition of the 
execrable Nadir, and the frequent invasion of Ahmad Shall the con¬ 
querors of the Mahrattas at Panipat were all borne by the Panjab. 
Scarcely any other part of India suffered from them, or if they did, 
the Panjab suffered both before and after. No good accrued to any 
province of India from any one of these inflictions. The work done 
by each of these scourges was one of destruction and not of construc¬ 
tion. No public works attest the presence of these mighty ones in 
India. And yet each one has left behind him some sign of his hated 
though short rule. Mr. Thomas has edited the coins struck in India 
by Mahmud and his successors, and those cf Muhammad Gori. I 
myself edited in a late paper the only known Indian coin of Timur, 
a miserable copper damri. In my late furlough I edited the coins 
which Nadir Shah struck during his short and disastrous visit to DehlL 
I propose in the present paper to give a short account of the coins 
which the successor of Nadir Shah,—Ahmad Shah Abdalli struck in 
India. If we bear in mind that the striking of coins in India is a pre¬ 
rogative of royalty, and one which has always been exercised the mo¬ 
ment a man sat on the throne ; moreover if we remember that the 
mint was carried with the royal camp,* we shall at once see that if we 
collect specimens of each year and of each mintage, we shall have a 
chronological account if the events of the reign in coins : we shall also 
see the expansion of each king’s rule or otherwise. 
Ahmad Shah invaded India several times. On each occasion he 
struck coins. If in a place only a few days, the numismatic records are 
not silent about the visit. The king may have been dominant before 
his coming and after he had gone. But during the time the invader 
stayed, he coined. Hence we often have coins struck in one year at the 
same place by the conquering and the conquered ruler. This it is 
which lends interest to the coins of Ahmad Shah Durrani. They are 
not old. But they are becoming rarer every day. Indeed it is seldom 
they are now met with. As they are the only relics of the man who 
* I have lately become possessed of a dirham of Baber’s struck in the camp 
(Urdu ,5^)|)- Urdu Zafar Qarin is a common mint of Akbar’s. 
