Documentation of historic Indian coins by British Museum underway
As part of the British Museum’s programme to make its collection accessible online, documentation assistants “are undertaking painstaking work to go through the collection.” They are working on the Collection online catalogue which is accessible to the public.
The work is supported by the Headley Trust and is “bringing new discoveries to the surface,” as well as “helping the teams learn more about the collection than ever before.”
In the British Museum’s Money and Medals department, rare 17th-century copper Mughal coins have been documented. The collection is from the reign of Jahangir, the fourth Mughal emperor from 1605-1672. Coins from this era are unusual as they were issued with pictorial designs, a major shift from Islamic traditions. They also include representations of the zodiac signs for the month in which they were minted.
The collection of Mughal coins was the first Asian series to receive a modern catalogue, courtesy of Stanley Lane-Poole in 1892. But this omitted lower denominations in copper, favouring silver and gold coins. This created a perception that the copper coins disappeared or were rare at the time of the Mughal Empire, shaping the modern interpretation of Indian economic history.
Images of over 1,300 coins relating to Jahangir are among the items in the documentation programme. They are now available to view on Collection online, 129 of which are copper and copper alloy. Some of them have been in the collection since Lane-Poole’s original catalogue.
Documentation of these and making them available to all researchers is “key to bridging the gap between these details of numismatic data and significant changes in the early-modern world,” the museum said. “The research that can now be carried out on these coins will tell us more about India’s economy, political power and colonial legacy.”
Stay tuned to EyeOnLondon for the latest news and expert opinions.
Follow us on:
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest videos and updates!
We value your thoughts! Share your feedback and help us make EyeOnLondon even better!
