On our visit to the Ashmolean Museum, we attended a coin handling session held by the Indian Numismatics and Monetary Specialist, Dr. Shailendra Bhandare. He talked to us about the history of coins in the subcontinent.
The container that he brought ou holds centuries-old Indian coins, only a few of the thousands that are stored in the vault of the Ashmolean Museum. There are 15 coins in this container, 3 gold and 12 silver. The origin of the collection is certainly quite dicey though. Most of the coins were from the personal collections of Oxford dons and alumni, and the collections were likely acquired from the looting of British imperial. The coins are quite valuable, the highest coin in this tray is placed at over £500,000.
Prior to British possession of these coins, they first belonged to Mughal emperors. Some of these coins were scattering coins, which were thrown at the poor to distract them. Others were properly used in circulation, depicting phrases in writing and then later the emperor’s faces on the surface. Several of the coins are also have images of the zodiac, including the golden Aries in the middle, which is the most expensive coin in this particular sample. This was one of the scattering coins used by the emperors like Jehangir.
Most of the coins in the collection are real and many are pure. However, several of the coins are counterfeit as well. This topic brought up an interesting discussion about whether these counterfeit coins are historically significant or not, despite their faked value. In my opinion, while the physical value of these coins is essentially worthless, their historical value is still priceless, just like for any other coin.
While some of the coins in the Ashmolean collection are fake, these coins still have inherent historic value. They each have a unique story, no matter what century they come from. Whether the counterfeit coins were meant to purchase goods at the time they were being used or even to dupe colonial collectors centuries later, they are still objects of the past with a valuable story.
Other faked coins include impure or lighter coins created by the minters as well. These coin makers would keep a little bit of the bullion for themselves when making the coins, and so they would have a lower purity level. Unfortunately, not much is known on the makers and designers of these coins, nor the people who actually used them when they were in circulation. The most that is known about these centuries-old artefacts are the collectors who purchased them (whether by dubious means or legal ones). This in itself is somewhat problematic, although not much can be done to trace the owners and makers of the money, because it likely would have traded hands so frequently.