Table of Contents of 'The Coins of The Sikhs' By Hans Herrli

 
Maps   x

Preface   xi
A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE SIKHS   1

     The 10 Gurus    1
     The rise and fall of the Sikh State   4
GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE FAMILY OF RANJIT SINGH    7
THE MAHARAJAS OF THE PUNJAB OR OF LAHORE    8

CHRONOLOGY OF THE SIKH LEADERS AND THE

RULERS IN DELHI AND AFGHANISTAN   9
THE SIKH STATE OF RANJIT SINGH  10
THE SIKH MISLS   11
THE GURUMUKHI SCRIPT  14

SIKH TERMS    17
THE SIKH COINAGE   19

The copper coinage   19

Rupees  19
The coinage of the Khalsa confederacy    19

The Misl coinage  20
The coinage of Ranjit Singh and his successors   21
Metrology   23

   Gold   23

    Silver   23

    Copper   24
The leaf mark on the Sikh coins   25
The purchasing power of the Sikh coins   27
COIN INSCRIPTIONS  28
   The Gobindshahi couplet   28

   The Nanakshahi cuplet   30

   Reverse inscriptions   32

  Inscriptions on copper coins    32
DATES ON SIKH COINS  33
The Vikrama Samvat (VS) era   33

    Comparative table of VS and AD years     34
     The Hijri era    35
    Table of the New Year days of the Hijri era     35
    The Guru Nanak era     36
    The Banda Bahadur era     38
    Unexplained dates     38
CATALOGUE     39
INTRODUCTION     40
    The numbering system     40
01 AMRITSAR     42
    The coinage of Amritsar     43
    The rupees struck at Amritsar     45
    The Khalsa rupee     46
    The Nanakshahis     49
    Rodgers' Dar Jhang rupee     57
    The Mora Shahi     63
    The Arsiwala Shahi     65
    Marks on the Nanakshahi and Gobindshahi rupees of Amritsar     67
    The Gobindshahis     77
    Marks on the Gobindshahi rupees     83
    Miscellaneous mohur and rupee types     85
    Copper coins     86
A.    Copper coins bearing only Persian inscriptions     86
B.    Regular copper coins with inscriptions in
    Gurumukhi script     88
    B1: Coins with an undivided obverse inscription     89
    B2: Coins with an undivided obverse inscription and
          an additional horizontal middle line     91
    B3: Coins with SAHAI GUR divided by a mark     92
C.    Copper coins with the AKAL SAHAI GUR NANAK JI  

obverse of type B and various Gurumukhi reverse
inscriptions    96
D.  Coins with a Gurumukhi obverse inscription and the

     JARABA SRI AMBRATSARJI reverse of type B   97
E.    Coins with a Gurumukhi inscription on the obverse and
       a Persian inscription on the reverse     98
F.    Mules     99
    02 ANANDGHAR     100
    30 UNIDENTIFIED SIKH MINT A     104
    31 UNIDENTIFIED SIKH MINT F     105
    03 PIND DADAN KHAN     107
    04 UNIDENTIFIED COPPER MINTS IMITATING COIN TYPES OF
       AMRITSAR     110
    05 DERA (Dera Ghazi Khan)     112
       The coinage of Dera     113
          Rupees     113
         Copper coins     115
    06 KASHMIR     119
    The Sikh governors of Kashmir     120
    The mint names on the coins of Kashmir     121
    The rupees circulating in Kashmir     122
    The copper coins of Kashmir     123
    Catalogue of the Sikh coins of Kashmir     124
    The regular rupees     124
    Special rupees     139
    Copper coins     141
    07 DERAJAT (Dern Ismail Khan)     157
    The coinage of Derajat     158
     Mahmudshahis of the semi-independent Nawabs of
    Dera Ismail Khan     158
    Mahmudshahis of the Nawab as a Sikh feudatory     159
    Copper coins of the Nawabs as feudatories of Ranjit
    Singh     160
    Copper coins struck before the annexation of Dera
    Ismail Khan in 1835 AD and bearing a Sikh legend     161
    Coins struck after the annexation of the Derajat     162
    Silver     162
    Copper     164
    Billishahis     165
 08   LAHORE   167
 The coinage of Lahore    169
The Jassa Singh Ahluwalia rupee    170
Regular rupees: Gobindshahis and Nanakshahis    172

Rupee patterns: the Guru Nanak / Ranjit Singh rupee  179
The Ahluwalia rupee   181
Copper coins  183
09    UNIDENTIFIED SIKH MINT D  184

10   UNIDENTIFIED SIKH MINT C   185

 32   UNIDENTIFIED SIKH MINT E    187
11 MULTAN   188
The coinage of Multan  192
Coins of the 1st Sikh occupation of Multan  193
Silver rupees   193
Copper coins   194
Coins of the 2nd Sikh occupation of Multan  194
Mohurs and rupees   195

Marks on the rupees  196
Copper coins  197
Durrani types   197
Sikh types  198
The emergency gold rupees struck during the siege

 of Multan is VS 1905     200
33 MANKERA  203
12 A LEAD IMITATION OF A SIKH COIN

   BEARING THE MINT NAME MULTAN
   (BELA?)      206
13 PESHAWAR     210
The coinage of Peshawar under the Sikhs   212

Rupees   212
Copper coins    214
14 PATIALA     217
The coinage of Patiala   218

Gobindshahi rupees of Patiala       221
Copper Coins   223

15 NABHA   224
The rulers of Nabha     224

The coinage of Nabha    225
   The Gobindshahi rupees of Nabha     226
16 JAMMU   230
17 NAJIBABAD   232
18 MISCELLANEOUS UNIDENTIFIED SIKH MINTS   233
19 IMITATIONS OF SIKH PAISAS PROBABLY
    STRUCK AT LOHARU   235
20 UNDISCOVERED SIKH COINS    239
The Jassa Singh rupee of Lahore     239

The Ung rupee of Amritsar     239
The rupee in the name of Hari Singh Nalwa    239

Sikh rupees struck at Saharanpur   240
Sikh rupees struck at Rawalpindi  241
21 COUNTERFEIT AND FAKE SIKH COINS   242
Counterfeit coins     242
Fake coins and fabrications  242
22 COUNTERMARKS ON SIKH COINS     246

APPENDIX 1: The notes of Baron Karl Alexander

                     Anselm von Hugel concerning the

                     coinage of Kashmir  251
APPENDIX 2: A correspondence concerning the
                     gold rupees of Multan published in

                    Spinks Numismatic Circular, 1896    257
APPENDIX 3: The report of Major-General R.G. Taylor
                     on the coinage of the Phulkian States      259
                    Patiala    259
                    Jhind     260
                    Nabha    261
APPENDIX 4: Coins of the Kalsia State    262

APPENDIX 5: Sikh medals and tokens     265
APPENDIX 6: Alexander Burnes' description of the

                    Salt Range and its mines    279
APPENDIX 7: European travellers and adventurers in
                    Ranjit Singh' s Empire    283
                    Jean-Francois ALLARD   283
                    Paolo di Bartolomeo AVITABILE   284
                   Josiah HARLAN     284
                   Dr. Joh. Martin HONIGBERGER   285

                   Baron Karl Alex. Anselm von HUGEL   285

                   Giovanni Battista VENTURA   286
                   Godrey Thomas VIGNE   286
                   Dr. Joseph WOLFF  286
Bibliography              289
                               

                                Maps
The Sikh State of Ranjit Singh    10

The Salt Range                             106
Kashmir                                         118
The Derajat and Multan                 156
Mankera and the Sind-Sagar Doab     202
Peshawar                                          208
The Cis-Sutlej Region                       216
 
Introduction to the Book 'The Coins of The Sikhs' By Hans Herrli

The Sikh coinage started in the second half of the eighteenth century, reached its apogee during the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and ended abruptly with the annexation of the Panjab by the British in 1849. Although the Sikhs struck coins in about 20. mints, there coinage remained quite uniform until the end. Their rupees bear religious legends and never mention their issuer, but Amritsar, their main economic and religious center, produced the most complex system of mintmarks in modem India. Early observers were often baffled by the first major non¬Mughal coinage of northern India and their descriptions of Sikh coins are commonly full of errors, errors that have all too often survived until today.
 

In a first part the present book gives a short historical introduction and a general survey of the Sikh coinage. The second part consists of an illustrated catalogue of all the actually known Sikh coin types arranged by mints. Several appendices offer a brief survey of Sikh tokens and medals and a few important numismatic texts in extenso. This book is not only intended as a useful tool for coin collectors, but also as a source of material for historians and students of the economy of the Sikh empire.
 

About the Author 'Hans Herrli' of 'The Coins of The Sikhs'

Hans Herrli was born at Bienne (Switzerland) in 1933. After graduating from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich he worked in several countries in Europe and the Middle East. During numerous long visits to India and Pakistan he visited the territories of the former Sikh state and all its mint towns.