The Coins of the Qutb Shahi Rulers

After the decline of the Bahmani Sultanate in the last years of the fifteenth century, five different and independent Sultanates emerged to fill the power vacuum. One of these five successor states to the Bahmani Sultanate was the Qutb Shahi state based in Golconda. Internecine struggle and war of resistance against the imperial Mughal army was a common incident in the history of all the five Deccani successor states to the Bahmani kingdom. This incessant warfare did not allow the Deccani Sultans to regularize their economy and issue more sophisticated coins. Thus, the coins of the Qutb Shahi kingdom remained low in artistic excellence and sophistication.

Sultan Quli Qutb ul Mulk, the first of the Qutb Shahi rulers, curbed a separate territory around Golconda to establish his own state in the first decades of the sixteenth century. But he never issued any coin in his name. It was his successors who started issuing coins in their names. The Qutb Shahi coins were issued in copper only. Most of the Sultans of this kingdom did not issue coins of uniform value and weight standard. Thus, a standard metrology of Qutb Shahi coins is quite difficult to suggest.

The majority of the Qutb Shahi coins were simple in design and appearance. The name of the issuing monarch was inscribed on the obverse while the reverse bears the name of the mint and the year of the issue in Hijri era. Sometime, even the year of the issue was not mentioned in the coins. The royal titles and epithets of the rulers of the Qutb Shahi kingdom were also not as elaborate as their contemporary Mughals. They simply used “Sultan” as their epithet on most of the coins. Only Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah (1580-1612 CE) and Muhammad Qutb Shah (1612-26 CE) adopted the title of “abu-l Muzaffar” and mentioned the same in their coins.

Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah issued some coins with quite a strange Persian couplet inscribed on them. It read as follows-

Paivastah be lanate-Ilahi

Tayirdah- fulus -I- Shahi.

The meaning of the couplet is- God’s curse be on him who finds fault with the Royal fulus or monetary issues. According to some numismatists and scholars, the Qutb Shahi coins were not valued much by the merchants and the ordinary masses in the markets and in the business transactions. Thus, the Sultan invoked the curse of the God to improve the material condition of his coins. These coins bear the name of the issuing monarch on the obverse and the name of the issuing mint and the issuing year on the reverse.

Abdullah Qutb Shah (1626-72 CE) and his son-in-law and successor Abul Hasan Qutb Shah (1672-86 CE) issued coins with another weird line of inscription- “Khatam bil-khair wa al-sadath”. It means, “it came to an end well and auspiciously”. Probably, these coins were issued to mark the end of some calamitous event which engulfed the whole of the kingdom.

The coins were issued from two principle mints situated in Golconda and Haidarabad. The coins issued from the Golconda mint bear the name of the place as either “MuhammadnagarGulkundah” or “Dar-ul Salatanat Golkondah”. Later, coins were also issued from the Haidarabad mint bearing the inscription “Dar-ul Saltanat Haidarabad”.


From Salt to Squirrel Pelts: Strange forms of money

In this materialistic world money is one of the most sought after things. There are very few things which money can’t buy and thus, we have seen people, through the ages, fighting bloody, gory wars or exploring unknown lands to possess more and more money. In our common parlance, money is represented by currency notes and coins- coins of precious metals which have their own material value or coins of not-so-precious metals whole value lies in their formal recognition from the governments. However, apart from these common forms, money and more generally wealth has been represented by various other forms through the ages. Some of these things are bizarre; others are so mundane that we can’t even think of them as representing wealth on the first instance. Here we have prepared a list of such things which are not well known as a form of representing wealth from various corners of the world.


Salt was one of the most sought after commodity in ancient world. In ancient times it was not as easily available as it is today. In ancient China, salt was used to pay taxes by the subjects. The Roman state occasionally pays its soldiers in salt. The Latin for salt- “salarium” is the root word of salary. Even in modern times, some nomadic groups from Ethiopia used salt as a medium of barter.

Cowry Shells

Cowry shells were extensively used in various parts of south east Asia, India, China, and eastern Africa as medium of exchange. They were collected from the sea. The Indian subcontinent experienced a demonetization process in the early medieval ages (c. 6th century CE- 11th century CE). Coins became scarce in this period and cowry shells became the main medium of exchange and business. Even in the modern age, Indian merchant community considered cowry shells as auspicious items and linked it to the Hindu goddess of wealth, Laxmi.

Arrowhead coins

These were actually small pieces of bronze cast in the shape of arrowheads. They originated as early as 7th century BCE in the northern shores of the Black Sea. With time, the artisans who produced these pieces acquired some artistic skills and this was reflected in the more sophisticated execution of the arrowhead coins. The later arrowhead coins were produced in shapes like fishes and dolphins.


Peppercorn is one of the most extensively traded spices from the ancient times. At present, the trade in peppercorns accounted almost a quarter of all the spice trade around the world. Peppercorn was highly valued in ancient times. Its value was as high as gold and thus, when the Huns and the Visigoths siege Rome they demanded large quantities of peppercorn as ransom. The trade in peppercorn and other exotic spices from south east and south Asia in the early modern ages was one of the main impetuses behind the formation of large European colonial empires in these regions.

Squirrel Pelts

In medieval Russia and Finland, Squirrel pelts were considered as highly prized possession and extensively used as a medium of exchange. The mass killing of squirrels for their pelts in Russia ironically saved the Russians from the devastating effects of cannabis, the Plague epidemics which were frequent visitors in medieval and early-modern Europe.

Interesting facts about the Swedish Krona

Sweden is a Scandinavian country situated in northern Europe. It is one of those very few countries who despite being a member of the European Union did not join the Eurozone and retained its national currency- the Krona (SEK). Swedes seemed to be too proud of their Krona to adopt a shared currency with the other European countries. A majority of the Swedes rejected the proposal to adopt the Euro back in November, 2003 in a referendum. Since then, many unofficial public surveys have showed the ever decreasing number of Swedes ready to accept Euro. This is why we have prepared a list of interesting facts about (in English it means Crown).

  1. The Swedish Krona came into use in 1873 when the Swedish government entered into a monetary agreement with the governments of Norway and Denmark which is known as the Scandinavian Monetary Union. Before that the Swedish currency was known as Riksdaler. After the formation of the Union, the three member countries issued Krona currency based on the gold standard. The Union continued up to the outbreak of the World War I. After the outbreak of the Great War, the Monetary Union was dissolved but the member countries continued to use the name Krona as their currency. This Union from the 19th century showed that the Swedes were not always against a transnational currency system!
  2. The Swedish Krona is theoretically subdivided into 100 ore. But the ore ceased to exist in reality when the authority decided against their further circulation in September, 2010. Actually the cost to produce the ore coins exceeded their face value and this led the Swedish government’s decision to discontinue them.
  3. The central bank of Sweden is known as Riksbank. Riksbank is responsible for the issue of Krona notes and coins.
  4. Until 1902, gold coins were issued in Sweden. However, they failed to maintain the gold standard after that point of time and various other metals have been used so far to strike the coins such as silver, bronze, aluminum, etc.
  5. At present, coins of 1 Krona and 2, 5, and 10 Kronor are in circulation.
  6. The Kronor coins generally bear the image of the reigning Swedish monarch on the obverse and the reverse carry the value of the coins.
  7. The 5 and 10 Kronor coins are made of Nordic Gold- an alloy metal made of copper, aluminum, zinc, and tin. The other coins are made of copper-plated steel.
  8. The Swedish banknotes come in different denominations. At present, banknotes are available of 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 Kronor.
  9. The various Kronor currency notes carry the images of several famous Swedish personalities over the time. This included the image of Greta Garbo on the 100 Kronor banknote and Ingmar Bergman on the 200 Kronor banknote which were issued in 2015.
  10. There is an increase in the use of e-wallet among the Swedes in the recent years. This led to a drastic downfall in the cash transactions and the circulation of banknotes and coins.

Coins of Later Mughals

The 18th century in Indian history is full of political turmoil. On the one hand, it witnessed the slow downfall of the great Mughals and the emergence of several regional powers all over the subcontinent; on the other hand it also saw the emergence of another powerful empire- the British Empire under the East India Company. The death of Aurangzeb in 1707 CE marked the starting point of the decline of the Mughal Empire. However, Mughals continued to rule nominally up to 1856 CE. They were regarded by all the regional powers as well as the Company to be the sole source of sovereignty in the whole of South Asia. Coins were still struck in their name and Friday prayers or Khutba were still read in their names in the mosques all over India. We will look at some of those 18th century Mughal coins and the various interesting facts associated with them.

Since the second decade of the 18th century, the centralized Mughal state faced increasing difficulties in resource mobilization. Their main source of income was the land revenue collected from the provinces. With the weakening of the Mughal centre, the revenue supply from the provinces became irregular. This is also evident in the later Mughal coinage.

Gold and silver coins were continued to be issued in the name of the Mughal Padshah from Delhi. But their value and number was declining.

Farrukhsiyar who ruled as the Mughal emperor from 1713 to 1719 issued Gold Mohurs and silver rupees from both Delhi ( also known as Shahjahanabad after the great Mughal Shahjahan) and Itawa which is situated in modern Uttar Pradesh. The gold Mohurs of Farrukhsiyar weighed around 10.90 gm and recorded the name and reigning year of the Padshah on the obverse and reverse respectively. The dates were recorded in Al Hijri following the Mughal Islamic tradition.

A silver rupee of Ahmed Shah Bahadur (r. 1748-1754) was issued from Khambayat or Cambay, a port town on the western coast of India known for its considerable importance in maritime trade. This coin was issued in 1748 (1161 AH) and weighed around 11.50 gm. The style and decoration of the coin followed the usual Mughal style of inscribing the name and the regnal year of the emperor in beautiful ornamental calligraphy.

Shah jahan III (1759-60 CE) was a titular ruler but issued a silver coin from Delhi. These coins are particularly interesting for the numismatists for their strange source of silver. At that point of time, the Mughal emperor was in a difficult position facing the advancing Afghans. The Marathas from the south India marched towards Delhi to help the Mughal emperor. The Maratha general Sadashiv Rau Bhao reached Delhi to help the Emperor but he was short in cash which was essential to meet the expenses of the massive campaign against the Afghans. To solve this problem, he ordered the silver linings to be stripped off from the ceiling of the Diwan I Khaas and coins to be struck using that video porno gratis. Diwan I Khaas is a hall situated in the Red Fort, Delhi which was used by the Mughal Emperor for private audiences. Around 900,000 Rupee coins were issued using that silver.

10 interesting facts about Chilean Pes

Chile is one of the leading economic powers of South America. It is a long strip of land sandwiched between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean on the western verge of the South American continent. The territory also included some Pacific islands such as Desventuradas, Salas y Gomez, etc. The economic stability of the nation is reflected in the relative high standard of living of its citizens. And this is why we will have a look at some of the must-known facts about the Chilean currency- the Peso (CLP).

  1. The Peso was first introduced in 1817 during the last years of the Spanish colonial rule. At that time, Peso was pegged to the Spanish currency and placed on the gold standard.
  2. The Banco Central de Chile controlled the circulation of the Peso. Though the Peso is allowed to float freely in the market, the Central Bank retained some control to counter the excessive depreciation of the currency which the Central Bank exercised on some occasions.
  3. The Peso continued to be the currency of Chile up to 1960 when it was replaced by a new currency- the Escudo. However, the Peso made a comeback in 1975 and it remained as the Chilean currency till then.
  4. The Peso is theoretically subdivided into 100 centavos. In reality, however, centavo coins ceased to exist long ago. Even some low denomination Peso coins are also hard to find.
  5. Some of the coins issued in the early and mid-19th century were made of gold and silver. Increasingly these coins were replaced by coins made of more cheap metals such as copper, nickel and alloys such as cupro-nickel.
  6. Gold coins were issued as late as 1926. They were of higher denominations- 20, 50, and 100 Peso.
  7. When the escudo was introduced in 1960, the value of the old Peso was determined as 1 escudo= 1000 Peso. I escudo was further subdivided into 100 centesimos. Centesimo coins were issued in bronze and bronze-aluminum alloy. The reintroduction of Peso in September, 1975 saw the replacement of the Escudo and the value of the new Peso was determined as 1 Peso= 1000 Escudo.
  8. Chile was ruled by a military junta between 1973 and 1990. During the rule of the junta, Peso coins bear the image of a woman who is depicted as recently being freed from her chains. The coins also carry the inscription- LIBERTAD and the date of the military coup on the obverse.
  9. After the restoration of the republic in 1990, a new design was adopted with the figure of the legendary Chilean freedom fighter Bernardo O’Higgins on the obverse.
  10. In 2008, the Chilean mint issued a series of new 50 Peso coins bearing a wrong spelling of the name of their country. Instead of CHILE, it was spelt as CHIIE. In the following year, this mistake made national headlines and Gregorio Iniguez, the general manager of the mint was forced to resign. However, these coins with the wrong spelling became an instant hit among the numismatists!


Ancient Chinese Currencies








Interesting Facts about the Euro

In the arena of international trade and commerce the importance of the European countries never declined since the early days of the capitalist economy i.e. roughly from the 16th century. Certainly they faced major setbacks with the emergence of the United States of America in the twentieth century. Still the importance of the European economies is immense in the capitalist world order. The Euro is the common currency of several of these countries. Here we have prepared a list of 12 must-be-known facts about the Euro.

  1. Talks about a common currency for all the European countries were in the air since the 1970s. It was the result of the long process of drawing a common European economic space which started after the conclusion of the World War II with active American assistance. One of the major steps was taken in the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht which laid down certain rules for the member countries to follow in order to be included in the club of the countries using the Euro.
  2. Before the physical circulation of the Euro, it was introduced as a medium of electronic payments in 1st January, 1999. The first notes of Euro came into circulation in 1st January, 2002.
  3. It was introduced in 12 countries at the first instance. The first countries to adopt Euro were Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Finland, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Ireland, France, and The Netherlands.
  4. Later several other countries joined the club of Euro users. This included Cyprus, Estonia, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
  5. The Euro is denoted by the symbol €. €1 is further divided into 100 cent. The symbol came from the Greek alphabet ‘epsilon’ with two parallel horizontal lines crossing the middle of the alphabet.
  6. Coins of 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, 50 cent, €1, and €2 are available. The reverse of the Euro coins is same throughout the Eurozone. They carried the denomination of the coin and a map of Europe on the reverse. But the obverse is different since the particular issuing country inscribed different symbols according to their choice. However, they can be used in any of the countries recognizing Euro.
  7. The Euro coins are endowed with High-security-machine-readable features in order to avoid the circulation of fake coins. Some of the low valued coins are made of Nordic Gold- an alloy specifically made to construct coins.
  8. The currency notes also come in different denominations starting from €5. The highest value of the currency note in circulation is €500. The denominations are written on the notes in three different scripts- Greek, Roman, and Cyrillic.
  9. The notes of different denominations are printed in different colors. €5 comes in grey, €10 is printed in red, €20 in blue, €50 in orange, €100 in green, €200 in yellow, and €500 comes in purple.
  10. The currency notes are of uniform design across the Eurozone unlike the Euro coins.  The notes of different denominations carry the picture of a particular European building printed on them.
  11. The central authority to supervise the monetary policy according to which the Euro is issued is the European Central Bank (ECB) with its headquarters situated in Frankfurt, Germany. The Eurosystem, a conglomerate of the different central banks of the Euro using countries, supervise the minting, printing, and distribution of the coins and currencies.
  12. The Euro is a greatly valued currency in the global economic sphere. Only the US $ surpasses the € in importance in international trade and currency reserve of different countries.

Interesting Facts about US Dollar

Dollar, the US currency is the most popular and powerful currency in the world. It is considered to be the pride of America. It consists of the cotton linen material which counts as one of the most distinctive features. It is quite contrary to many believers who generally think that the dollar is made from paper. However, besides this, there are certain other things about US Dollar that you need to know. This article endeavours to enlist some of the interesting facts about US Dollars.

  1. The weight of a dollar is only 1 gram. It occupies a space of about 16 square inches. The Americans introduced this currency to the world in the year 1690.
  2. One of the important causes that the money is not made form paper is that paper wears away very easily and costs more. As a result, in order to retain that, the government insists that the money should be made of proper materials. Also, paper currencies cannot be retained as long as the coins which are both recyclable and has a life span of about 30 years. The life span of a $10 bill is about 4 years.
  3. Besides linen, other key ingredients in making of money in USA are ink and cocaine. But it should not lead you to conclude that the money is made of cocaine. Rather, it is to be noted that the 97% of the money in USA has little traces of cocaine.
  4. On an average, $1 dollar bill circulated for about 5.8 years! It represents 45% of the total bill production. Such is the condition of a dollar when it is circulated in various pockets for over years.
  5. There are different name for each dollar in the colloquial American English. For example, twenty dollar is called ‘Double Sawbuck’, a fifty dollar is called ‘Grant’. There are other terms that are variedly used in this context are Franklin, C-Note, Hunsky, Green-Bank and others.
  6. In USA, you can redeem the bills that are ripped but on one condition that you have more than half the portion of the bill.
  7. George Washington’s portrait was used for the first time in the $1 dollar note in 1869.
  8. The two dollar bill in USA was introduced in the year 2003. A lot of people are unaware of the fact that these types of bills do exist!
  9. A lot of five cent dollars were minted between 1942 and 1945 and these do not have nickels in them.
  10. The $100,000 note was printed and it has been credited as the largest note. It was used for transactions of the Federal Reserve bank and was never circulated among the masses.
  11. Martha Washington is the only woman who has appeared in the currency notes. It is quite an interesting fact that there has been no image of any African-American on the US$ notes till now.
  12. A major percentage of the notes in USA are contaminated with bacteria. Some even consist of pathogens that are potentially dangerous.

Interesting Facts about Numismatics

One of the important methods to reconstruct our past is the study of coins. The scholarly discipline of studying the ancient coins is known as numismatics. Not only coins, numismatics also includes the study of all sorts of currencies be it paper money, coins, tokens, or other currency of relative significance. This term was taken from the French word ‘numismatiques’, which was again derived from the Latin word ‘numismatis’. This article enlists some interesting facts about numismatics.

  1. The first city in the world to mint its own gold coins was Florence, situated in Italy. This significant event took place in 1252.
  2. In Britain, the oldest Roman coin was found which was about 2,224 year old. This coin was minted in 211 BC. On one side of the coin, there is the image of Goddess Roma while the other side have the image of mythical twin horses Pollux and Castor.
  3. In the present time, collecting old coins is a hobby of a lot of people across the globe. But in ancient time, it was considered as a royal hobby. Coins were collected both by the kings, the queens, and the nobles.
  4. You can now procure the old coins on the price of its face value. For example, the cost of coins from the nineteenth century is under ten dollars.
  5. In ancient India, cowrie shells were used as important economic tool instead of coins. These had a great value at that time. In fact, Veda has the earliest reference of coins in India.
  6. In 1940 at Gorky in Russia, there was a rain of silver coins all over the city. This was caused by a Tornado which had lifted an old money chest consisting of silver coins. As the wind carried them on, coins were dropped all over the city.
  7. During the rule of Ming dynasty, China issued the largest currency note in the world. In 1917, Romania issued the smallest bank note in the world.
  8. After a scientific experiment, it has been found that coins do not have any distinctive smell of their own. Rather, the smell that you get from the coins is typical of human body odour. You get the smell of iron which your skin releases after oil is secreted from your body after touching the metal.
  9. The largest numismatic organization in the world is American Numismatic Association that was founded in 1891. This Association has the largest circulating numismatic material in the world. It’s headquarter includes the World Money Museum.
  10. Numismatics, or the study of coins began during the European Renaissance. It was a part of the effort to re-discover everything classical.
  11. In 1962, the first international conference for coin collectors was organized at Michigan. It was sponsored by American Numismatic Association and attracted almost 400,000 coin collectors from across the globe.
  12. You can buy coin collections directly from the mint. There are large catalogues filled with details of coins and sets and other information that might readily interest any coin collector. Although it will take some price more than that of the face value, the possession shall still be worth it.

Interesting Facts about Ancient Roman Coins

