Lot No.230
AUC47
Sultanates
Silver
Bijapur Sultanate, Silver Larin, 4.57g, Ali Adil Shah (AH 1068-1083, 1656-1672 AD), Rajapur Mint, Obv: (Zarb) lari Rajapuri, Rev: (Sultan Ali) Adil (Shah). G&G unlisted. Very Fine, Extremely Rare.
The above coin is known only from two other specimens. Rajapur was a famous port in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra in medeival India. Along with towns Dabhol and Sangameshwar which were all situated within the Konkan strip. These towns were under the rule of Adil Shahs of Bijapur in the 16 &17 centuries. A hoard of nearly eight hundred larins turned up near Kolhapur in 1998, it contained the usual mixture of larins from the Persian Gulf and those of Adil Shah. But it also contained about half a dozen very rare larins with undecipherable script and a singularly unique specimen with the clear mint name Rajapur. The discovery of this Larin is important not only for numismatics but also historically as it proves that the town of Rajapur was under the control of Ali Adil Shah II. This was the time when Aurangzeb had become very powerful in the Deccan. The Mughal army was at arm’s length from the Konkan and Aurangzeb finally captured Rajapur in the fifth decade of his reign.
View Lot Details
|