Aurangzeb, Rupee AH 1101/33 Surat KM# 300.86

[Salvete]

I don't have many Surat rupees, Amit, but when you get started on this task (there is only a thin line between pleaseure and pain!) I will go through mine and send a short list.  I feel sure others will help as well.  These coins often appear on e-bay, so an hour spent loking at a few good sites and shops may well get you a few more.  Try doing your list as an XL spreadsheet.  Easy to update and print off, and easy to share.  Just a suggestion, of course.
It will not be a waste of your time, and I look forward to seeing your results.
Salvete

[Rangnath]

Do I correctly recall a point discussed earlier that mints would mint coins for any one who took bullion to have it converted? If so, were the marks put to identify the supply of coins to different entities who had had the coins coined? If so, were records ever maintained?

What a good idea Amit!  There is so much work to do! 
richie

[Oesho]

Coins were generally struck on demand of merchants/bankers against supply of bullion.
Foreign traders (incl. the European Trading Companies as some of the largest commercial traders) had to register all their goods they imported at the customhouse of the port. This included also 'bullion' (this could be in coins, bars or slabs) and had to pay import duty on it. At Surat, in the Mughal days, the 'bullion' was immediately transferred to the Mint and converted into coins. Traders often tried to smuggle in gold coins, but at the port of entree each passenger was thoroughly searched and if anything was found it was confiscated. Nevertheless people would take the risk and managed to bring in European gold coins (ducats).
See: Numismatic Digest, Vol. 29-30 (2005-2006), Jan Lingen A hoard of ducats from India. P.155-172.

[asm]

Coins were generally struck on demand of merchants/bankers against supply of bullion.

Oesho,
Thank you for this information. I was refering to a similar discussion in some earlier thread. However, the querry I had was:

Did the mint have different marks for the coins supplied to different entities. Or was it possible that there were more than one mint master in each year of coin mintage?

This querry comes from the observation that in case of the coins of the Surat mint of Aurangzeb, there are observed more than one different mark in the seen of the Jalus on the reverse for one AH/RY combination.

Were these different marks ever catalogued?

Amit

[Oesho]

Did the mint have different marks for the coins supplied to different entities. Or was it possible that there were more than one mint master in each year of coin mintage?
Were these different marks ever catalogued?

Yes, this is quite possible. There may have been one or two daroga's (mintmasters) during a certain year. Moreover as Surat for example had at times a very large output, several gangs of minters must have been employed. To keep control over the different gangs, dies were marked, besides the daroga mark, also marked by minute secrete marks. In case of fraud it was easy to trace the culprits. By the end of the day the dies were delivered back to the daroga and next day he would deliver them again to the particular minting gang.
Therefore you may observe a general daroga mark (usually in the loop of Seen of Jalus) and various clusters of 3, 4, 5 or 6 dots. These clusters may not be engraved on the dies at random, but may had a purpose to identify the different dies and the people who worked with them.