The Hobby of Kings

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Coins with Legend 'Palani'

Following is some of my collection of ancient Palani coins. One side of the coin has the word "Palani" in Tamil. few of the coins also have the legend in telugu.

The Salar Jung family was a noble family of erstwhile Hyderabad state, India under the Nizams, who ruled the state from 1720 to 1948. They are also credited with the safeguarding of rare artefacts and collections, which are now at Salarjung Museum.

Salar Jung family was among the remaining families of the top nobles other than the three great Paigah nobles (who were the highest order of nobility under the Nizams) After them, ranked the Umra-e-Uzzam. The Salar Jung family was one amongst the Umra-e-Uzzam. The ancestry of the Salar Jungs is dated back to the Sixteenth century, by the middle of the 19th century the family assumed importance that five of the family members served as Grand Viziers to the Nizams of Hyderabad.

Genealogy of the Salar Jungs

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Coins with Legend "rama rama" and "rama raja"

It is a bit challenging task to write a blog post on these coins with legend “rama rama” / “rama raja”

There is a lot of speculation over the attribution made on these coins.

Mitchiner attributed these coins to Vijayanagara Ramaraya whereas K.Ganesh attributed them to Marathas of Gingee. Many collectors have different views on these coins.

These coins are reported from Tirucoilur, Karur and Thanjavur regions of Tamil nadu.

There are two types of legend seen on these coins and this cannot be disputed.

a. rama rama in Nagari (राम राम)

b. rama raja in Nagari. (राम राज)