India, British India, 1820-1831 AD., Bengal Presidency, in the name of Shah Alam II, Calcutta(?) mint, 1 Rupee, KM 70.

India, British India, Bengal Presidency, in the name of Shah Alam II (1759-1788 and 1789-1806), Calcutta(?) mint, dated regnal year 45 , struck ca. 1820-1831 AD.,
3 Pai (ø 25,5 mm / 11,56 g), silver, axis medal alignment ↑↑ (0°), vertically milled (straight grained) |||| edge with one test-cut at 12 o´clock (obverse view),
Obv.: شاه عالم بادشاه
حامي دين محمد
ساى فضل لله
سكة زد بر حفت كشور , Sikka zad bar haft kishwar saya fazl Ilah Hami ud-din Muhammad, Shah Alam, Badshah , "Defender of the Muhammadan Faith, Reflection of Divine Excellence, the Emperor Shah Alam has stuck this coin to be current throughout the seven climes." , in Persian script.
Rev.: ميمنت مانوس
سنة ۴٥ جلوس
ضرب فرخ اباد , Zarb Farrukhabad sanat 45 julus maimanat manus , "Stuck at Farukhabad in the 45th year of his prosperous reign." , in Persian script, star-ornament to r.
KM 70 (previous KM 854a) .

Year / Mint Mark / Mintage / Details
No Date (1820-1831) / ? / regnal year 45

struck at four mints:
Farrukhabad, mint mark dot '•' on obverse (at 4-5 o´clock at the edge)
Calcutta, mint mark inverted v '^' on obverse
Banaras, mint mark both inverted v '^' on obverse & dot in cluster on reverse
Sagar, no mint mark

The design is in the style of a Moghul coin,but obviously machine-struck.
1.) 26mm, 11.7g, Edge: Oblique milling KM# 69
2.) 24mm, 11.7g, Edge: Vertical milling KM# 70



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Alam_II : Shah Alam II (1728–1806), also known as Ali Gauhar, was a Mughal emperor of India. He inherited the throne from his father, Alamgir II as Shah Alam II (1761–1805). After the Battle of Delhi,on 14 September 1803 British troops entered Delhi and Shah Alam, a blind old man, seated under a tattered canopy, came under British protection. The Mughal emperor no longer had the military power to enforce his will, but he commanded respect as a dignified member of the House of Timur in the length and breadth of the country. The nawabs and subahdars still sought formal sanction of the emperor on their accession and valued the titles he bestowed upon them. They struck coins and read the Khutba (Friday sermons) in his name. The British, not yet strong enough to claim sovereignty on their own, kept Shah Alam as a puppet until his death in 1806.

The Bengal Presidency initially comprised the regions of east and west Bengal. A colonial region of British India, the Presidency comprised undivided Bengal (present day Bangladesh), the states of West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Meghalaya, Orissa, and Tripura. In later times, during its peak height, the Presidency gradually annexed the princely states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and portions of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, including the provinces of North West Frontier and Punjab in Pakistan and Burma (present day Myanmar). Penang and Singapore were also regarded as a part of the Presidency administratively, until they were merged into the Crown Colony of the Straits Settlements in 1867. Calcutta was declared a Presidency Town of the East India Company in 1699. However, the outsets of the Bengal Presidency proper can be dated back to the treaties of 1765 between the British East India Company and the Mughal Emperor and Nawab of Oudh. The treaties had placed Bengal, Meghalaya, Bihar and Orissa under the administration of the Company.

The Bengal Presidency, in contradiction to those of the Madras Presidency and Bombay Presidency, ultimately incorporated all the British territories north of the Central Provinces (Madhya Pradesh), from the mouths of Ganga River and Brahmaputra River to the Himalayas and Punjab.
However, Bengal Presidency did not exist long. The reason behind it can be attributed to the Partition of Bengal, 1905. Lord Curzon had employed extreme cunning and shrewd measures to accomplish his task, which later came to criticised as the `Divide and Rule` policy. After incredible protests from the part of the commoner, voicing that it was a decision by the rulers to exhibit nepotism and separate the Hindu and Muslim communities, Curzon`s decision was reversed. Bengal was reunited in 1912. Later however, Bengal Presidency was further subdivided into Orissa and Bihar. The ultimate divide, completely ruined the Presidency and its administrative strength, remaining only as a titular name. The history of Bengal presidency thus unfolds the administrative tactics of the British empire.