Ahom coinage

Ahom coinage or Coins of Ahom Kingdom, issued from 1648 CE –1824 CE. First Ahom coin was issued by Jayadhwaj Singha (r. 1648–1663)^[1] and the last Ahom king to issue coin was Jogeswar Singha (r. 1821–1824). Coins were usually struck in octagonal shape, but square and round shapes coins were also issued but in limited quantity for special occasions and trade, the obverse of the coin contained the name of the king and date of coin and the reverse contained the imprint of the deity of the concerned king.^[2] The script used in coins was mainly Assamese, a few coins in Devanagari and Persian scripts were also issued. Ahom script in coins were extensively used during the war with Mughals. Chinese script was also used in order to meet out trade with Tibet, but is extremely rare.^[3]

Coins were both issued in gold and silver. The standard of purity was very high, between 94.1% to 98%. The standard weight was 11.3g with minor variations. The official mint was called Rajshal, located near the capital city. The mintmaster was called Sonardar Barua or Sonari Bordoloi, and the artist belonging to akharkatia khel (calligraphers guild) and khanikar khel (miner's guild) were employed as die-cutter. The principal denominations of Ahom coins were– rupee (Rajmohuree), half rupee (Adhali), quarter rupee (Siki), two annas (Admahia), one anna (Charatiya) and half anna (Tiniratiya).^[4]

Before Rudra Singha (r. 1696–1714) all coins were dated to accession year of kings, since him all the coins had annual impress. Siva Singha (r. 1714–1744), for the first time, had the name of his queens impressed alongside him in the coins, his chief consort Phuleshwari was the first to issue coins in persian script^[5] Rajeswar Singha had his coins impressed in both Persian and Devanagari scripts. During the Moamoria rebellion, when the rebels wrested out the traditional monarchy, the Moamoria chiefs had impressed coins on their names but in Nonagonal coin shape.^[6]