HO Numismatic Supplement. [Extra No. 
known, bearing the name Calcutta, is of the year 1176 A.H. = 1762-3. Cf. 
Brit. Mus. Cat. No. 67, p. 277. It is generally supposed that this name 
was discontinued and Murshidabad substituted when the Company 
assumed the right of coinage in Bengal; that from 1765 (1178-9 A.H.), 
till the native mint at Murshidabad was closed, coins were issuedbearing 
the mint name Murshidabad from both the Murshidabad and Calcutta 
Mints, and that the latter were probably an imitation of the former- 
Certain facts have, however, come to light which seem to render it doubt¬ 
ful whether the issue of Murshidabad native style rupees from the 
two mints was ever carried on simultaneously, at any rate prior to 
1792 A.D. when a mint was re-established at Murshidabad. 
The most recent paper dealing with this subject is a very useful one 
by Mr. J. M. C. Johnston in the Numismatic Chronicle of 1903, Part I, 
p. 71. Mr. Johnston says on pp. 75-76:— 
4 ‘ There is little doubt but that the Nawab of Bengal continued to 
strike coins at his own mint ac Murshidabad side by side with the Com¬ 
pany s coins, which bore the same mint name, but were probably struck 
at Calcutta. The result is that for some years coins of native fabric 
appear side by side with others struck in a collar in European style, all 
bearing the mint name Murshidabad.” 
“In the native style it is impossible to say whether the coins were 
actually struck by the Nawab or by the Company, but, as the Province 
was then under the control of the East India Company, it seems reason¬ 
able to place all the coins with the mint Murshidabad after the Hijrah 
date 1177, or with a higher regnal year than six of the nominal reign 
of Shah ’ Alam, under the British series. All with earlier dates would 
naturally fall to the Moghul issues.” 
The classification suggested by Mr. Johnston is a practical one, as 
co^ns struck in and after 1765 (1178-9 A.H.) though issued from the 
Murshidabad mint must have been issued with the permission, tacit or 
otherwise, of the East India Company, and may therefore rightly be re¬ 
garded as Company’s coins. I venture, however, to hazard the sug¬ 
gestion that the Calcutta mint did not commence to issue Murshidabad 
native-style rupees until the Murshidabad mint was closed. 
A hoard containing, among other coins, 119 native-style rupees of 
Shah ’Alam, bearing the mint name Murshidabad, has recently been 
acquired by Government as treasure-trove, and I have had the oppor¬ 
tunity of examining them as Honorary Numismatist to the Asiatic 
Society. The hoard was discovered in the Din aj pur district of the pro. 
vince of Bengal and contains the following specimens of Murshidabad 
rupees of Shah ’ Alam in native style, which give both the Hijra date on 
the obverse and the regnal year on the reverse. 
