Aurangzeb, half paisa, Gulbarga mint! Rare again!!

[abhinumis]

Hi all,
Aurangzeb captured Gulbarga in 1687 during his deccan campaign.. The name was later changed to Ahsanabad in 1115Ah and continued to appear as Ahsanabad in later mughal coins. The mint minted in all 3 metals but coppers are really rare and not more than a dozen known..
Obverse- falus mubarak Alamgir
Reverse- zarb Gulbarga sanah.

Do comment.

[Figleaf]

Not "just"rare, but eminently readable. I would expect prices to rise in a war zone, meaning less demand for coppers, but that should be redressed as peace returns. I wonder if the reason for the scarcity of copper of this mint could be that there were no copper mines in the vicinity. Due to its lower value, copper is much less attractive to transport...

Peter

[abhinumis]

The coppers from the Deccan mints were minted infrequently and for few years also.. That is the reason for the rarity of these coins Peter.

[Figleaf]

Of course, but that is a symptom, not the diagnosis. What is the reason behind that reason? There must have been demand for low value coins...

Peter

[asm]

Of course, but that is a symptom, not the diagnosis. What is the reason behind that reason? There must have been demand for low value coins...

That is the BIG question, never answered to my satisfaction. You find lots of copper for one ruler and then none for the next............ or in some cases, one comes across only coppers and no silver.........

Amit

[abhinumis]

That is the BIG question, never answered to my satisfaction. You find lots of copper for one ruler and then none for the next............ or in some cases, one comes across only coppers and no silver.........

Amit

I guess it depends on the demand of coppers.. Like Akbar minted so many coppers from so many different mints that Jahangir and to some extent Shah Jahan did not have to worry about minting coppers. The market had enough copper pieces. Also in case of Aurangzeb, there were coppers coming from the sultans ruling from the deccan (be it Nizamshahi, Qutubshahi, Adilshahi ). The deccan sultan's coinage were predominantly coppers, so perhaps Aurangzeb did not have to break a lot of sweat to put his coppers in circulation and that is why perhaps the coppers in deccan are infrequent. What do you think??

[asm]

I guess it depends on the demand of coppers.. Like Akbar minted so many coppers from so many different mints that Jahangir and to some extent Shah Jahan did not have to worry about minting coppers.

I do not buy this argument. There were tons of coppers from previous sultanates when Akbar came to the throne.........then why did he mint so much copper?

Also in case of Aurangzeb, there were coppers coming from the sultans ruling from the deccan (be it Nizamshahi, Qutubshahi, Adilshahi ). The deccan sultan's coinage were predominantly coppers, so perhaps Aurangzeb did not have to break a lot of sweat to put his coppers in circulation and that is why perhaps the coppers in deccan are infrequent. What do you think??

The same argument should have held valid for the previous regimes.......... and I do not think Sultanate coppers could have been used across the country..........

Amit