Pre-accession Rupee of Shah Jahan, Mint: Surat. KM#221.1; (AH1037) / RY 1.

[asm]

This 11.3g coin is a rupee of Shah Jahan from Surat. I have not been able to see the date on this coin which looks similar to KM#221.1. Please help confirm attribution.

Amit

[Oesho]

The rupee is dated AH 1037/Ry.1. On this coin the first year is indicated by the digit 1 and not, as usual, written as Ahd. See for further details ZENO #72531

[Figleaf]

Taken from Zeno:

“This reference to the premature coining of money at Surat is interesting,” says the editor of the Correspondence who does not appear to have known that a specimen of these unauthorized mintages has survived the ‘tooth of time’. When Hodival wrotes his notes he knew only of a single surviving specimen, the one in the Punjab Museum Lahore. R.B. Whitehead (Some notable coins of the Mughal emperors of India, (Numismatic Chronicle, 1926) writes that he knew of half a dozen specimens.

I take it that this coin is at best very hard to find. A coin with a very interesting history also. Your "luck" strikes again, asm.

Peter

[asm]

Dear Oesho,
Thank you once again for the confirmation and for the fantastic explaination on the coin (at Zeno). I observe a fair bit of variation in the ornamentation engraved on the coin from the coin posted by you on Zeno. Would that mean that different dies were engraved differently?

Peter, it appears my luck has held once again. I was offered this coin as a Shah Jahan coin of Surat, priced a little over 2.5 times the normal Surat rupee price. On instinct, I picked up this coin blind as it was offered by my regular dealer when I was travelling and he told me that it was different and that I do not have this type of coin in my collection.

Amit

[Rangnath]

Wow Amit! You are developing a good eye for interesting coins! 
richie

[Overlord]

Very nice indeed. Congrats, asm!

[asm]

I take it that this coin is at best very hard to find. A coin with a very interesting history also. Your "luck" strikes again, asm.

It seems fortune does favour the brave...... I found this one mis attributed as a standard coin of Shah Jahan Surat ..........

Amit

[Figleaf]

The first one was luck, the second luck and knowledge. Don't find another one, or it will be "habit"

Peter