orchha 1/4 rupee large flan weight of 1/4 rupee size of 1/2 rupee

[patelrikim]

Dear All,
I need your expert opinion on my coin of Orchha . its Orchha Vikramjit Mahendra 1/4th rupee in the name of Shah Alam II AH 1211/RY 41.
The coin has weight standard of 1/4 rupee and it has size of 1/2 rupee and bit bigger then that. I need to know that there were any nazaranas in fractions in princely states ?

I have attached image in attachments.

[Figleaf]

I am hardly an expert, but my understanding is that silver nazarana applies primarily to rupees and multiples. Your coin is looking good, with a nice deep strike, which leads me to propose an alternative.

The production methos for these coins was probably something like: rolling or hammering a plate of metal - cutting flans - stamping coins - adjusting coin weight.

Rolling or hammering the plate was a delicate process. If the plate was too thick, you could hammer it some more, but if it was too thin, it had to be re-melted. Now, imagine a plate that is slightly too thin. maybe the hammerer was inexperienced or maybe he'd enjoyed a bout of spirit-enhancing drugs Whatever. The foreman is unhappy, but the plate is only slightly too thin. The experienced foreman instructs the flan cutter to make the flans from this plate just a tad larger to compensate.

When the flans are ready for striking, the big brute of a minter, whose brains are largely located in the place he sits on, doesn't notice that the flans are thinner and broader. The dies are big enough to cover them anyway. However, applying the same strike force to a thinner coin will make it even broader, with a nice, deep strike, simply because the larger surface of the metal takes more energy (test this with dough, if you wish.) The coin's weight is adjusted, so the mint master is happy. It circulates freely, ending up in the hands of a collector who wonders what happened to his coin.

Peter

[patelrikim]

Thank you peter for your wonderful explanation.

I was wondering that is it possible that it could be case like nisar coins. Mughals used to make for celebration and donating purposes?
is there any historical evidence or which shows that fractions were used by princley states also like mughals used to specially mint nisars for celebration purposes only.

regards,
rikim

[Seeker55]

Very nice coin! My understanding is that the coin standards of this time were for weight, not diameter. For some reason this coin is thinner and was perhaps struck harder than usual, so has a larger diameter but still has the weight of ¼ rupee. I'm not aware of any evidence that there's a nazarana or nisar version.

[asm]

To understand the term 'Nazarana' is very important. These were coins struck specially only for the ritual of 'Nazar'. 'Nazar' was a protocol observed when a 'lesser' official was received by a 'greater' official and a small monetary gift was given by the lesser official to the greater official to acknowledge the gratification of his sight. (from a post by Mr Shailen Bhandare on Fb recently).

Once this is clear, it would be amply clear that these coins would only be rupees and not fractions. The opposite of this was the 'Nisar' - the scattering coins which the king scattered on the masses......... which were invariably low denomination coins.

Amit

PS: fractions are very difficult to come by in most series. However, when they do appear, these are invariable found in pristine condition.

[patelrikim]

Dear amitji and seeker ,

Thank you very much for sparing some time to reply on my post and making my concept clear about nazarana and nisar coins. 

kind regards,
rikim

[Director]

These are my examples of the 1/4 Rupee with different diameters evidently, but both weighing in at 2.8 grams.