(Withdrawn) Mumbai Rupee of Aurangzeb, Silver, 9.89 g, Rupee, issued in the name of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, Badr Munir couplet, mint name in crude calligraphy in the last line on rev. The whole execution is crude and un-like Mughal fabric, indicating the issuer to be a non-Mughal entity. The mint name is quite crude and reading of the mint name is doubted by a few scholars as it is not what we generally find on other Mumbai coins of later rulers. However, the overall crude execution of the calligraphy leaves no doubt that the mint name has to be similarly cruder. Moreover, the curves of the mint name do suggest an imitation of the word Mumbai. Also the weight of the coin was reduced by contemporary cheats by way of scrapping of edges to get silver and reduce the weight by a gram or so, the practice is found from ancient Gupta Empire to modern Princely States (kindly refer the Square Nazarana Mohur of Jaisalmer State, Lot# 429 in this auction). The coin seems to be issued by the East India Company when they acquired the Bombay islands and were in need of local silver currency. Since the British did not had their own currency, they tried to mint locally a few silver coins in the name of Aurangzeb with the mint name Mumbai. Consequently, in 1693, as Khafi Khan has noted, the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb was very displeased with the issue of these coins by the East India Company in Bombay. Aurangzeb took a strong exception to this minting. Consequenlty, the East India Company had to stop the minting and most of the minted coins were withdrawn and melted down. Quite later, during the time of Farrukhsiyar, the British got the Royal permission to mint coins in the name of Mughal Emperor and with the mint name Mumbai. Very Fine+, Unpublished and Unique.
