Akbar, Silver, 5.71 g, ½ Rupee, Urdu mint, Allahu Akbar type with Allahu / Akbar / Jalejalalhu on obv, Ilahi Di month at top and mint name with Ilahi year 44 at bottom on rev.All executions within a circular border and enclosed by a beaded border, decorated fields. About Extremely Fine, First Known Coin, Unique!
Urdu was the name of a Royal Camp mint. While the Royal army on move was going from place to place in order to conquer new and far distant regions of India, the Mughals, especially Akbar devised a “Portable Mint” that moved along with the Royal Mughal Army. The make-shift Mint had dual purpose: a) When a new fort or a city was conquered, the mint masters will immediately engrave new dies with the name of that place and struck coins to commemorate their victory over the enemy and hence record their victory in tangible forms; and b) in order to make payments to the army, the military officers constantly needed new supply of coined money, which was not possible to get enroute to a distant place from the capital. Hence the Moving Mint minted coins during their halts and supplied fresh coins to be paid as wages. To solve the problem of the Mint Name on these coins, the Mughals devised a new Mint Name called Urdu, which was written on those coins. Historically, the word Urdu is derived from the Turkic word Ordu, which means Army!
