INDIA, silver imitations of old rupees.
These are representatives of an old tradition.  Women were in the habit of wearing their wealth, including coins, so that in extreme cases they would go jingling around with several pounds of silver (or gold).  Some coins were more popular than others based mostly on eye appeal but also to some extent on historical association.  Moghul emperor Akbar I was popular with both Muslims and Hindus, and so were his coins, especially the nice looking square ones.  But Aurangzeb ended up being a fairly disastrous emperor and people tended not to want to perpetuate his memory.  When coins were not so easy to come by nice and full weight copies were made by jewelers to satisfy the demand, and that is what these are.  The practice was big in the 19th century and petered out after independence.  My impression is that jewelers have been doing something else with their time for at least the last 50 years.

silver imitations of Akbar's square rupee of Urdu Zafar Qirin, no date, probably made 19th c.,
 

 a) F 20.00
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

b) VF 30.00
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

c) different type, aVF 25.00
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

silver rupee sized Islamic votive dated 988 AH (1580), probably 19th c., very pretty, XF 30.00 sold
 
 







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