Muhammad Shah, Rupee, Mint: Kankurti. KM#436.35

[asm]

This one looks to be a Rupee of Muhammad Shah, minted at Kankurti. Please help confirm.



Amit

PS: Replaced the image with a larger one.

[Oesho]

More complete you can't get the mintname: Kankurti. Ruler, Muhammad Shah.

[asm]

Dear Oesho,

Thank you for the confirmation. The coin is badly stamped with 12 strikes on the rim and the 2 on the face... The dates are not visible on the coin but (in my old copy) SCWC does not list a price to it and Numismaster has better condition coins (without dates being visible) and marks them as rare. I picked up the coin for the completeness of the mint name.

Amit

[Salvete]

Nice coin, Amit.  In a way, the raised bits caused by the edge strikes have protected the faces from wear.

Salvete

[Figleaf]

I think Salvete's analysis is quite right. This coin has really suffered at the edge and that is exactly what preserved it, so that you could have yet another rare coin in your collection. I am amused thinking of how it would be passed up by a starting coin collector, because it doesn't look so good. I am even more amused thinking of how this coin, in the hands of a skilled minting professional could have raised an idea whose time hadn't come.

Or maybe the time for this idea had come long ago. Chinese cash coins had a protective edge and its effect must have been clear. What stopped the idea from spreading? Different minting techniques? The Himalayas? The well-known conservatism of minters?

Imagine what could have been...

Peter

[Salvete]

In India and Persia and Afghanistan, even if the die had a raised (actually a sunken edge) it would have fallen off the flan of most coins, and been of no use at all, Figleaf.  Anyway, the idea was to have built-in obsolescence (like modern washing machines) so they were worn out and could be valued at less, meaning they came back to be re-struck after a couple of years!  Thus making work and an income for the ruler and his schroffs and bankers, and more for the ordinary man to complain about!

There really is nothing new under the sun, is there?

Salvete