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INTRODUCTION Mughal coins have fascinated coin collector ,numismatics and  historians alike.these coins are not only a treasure house of hostorical  information but also they are the finest examples of famous Mughal art. under the patronage of the mughal giants like Akbar,Jahangir and Shah Jahan, Mughal coins reached a height of excellence which otherwise was attained by the Gupta monarchs in the fourth and fifth centuries in ancient india. Mostly devoid of pictures,portraits and motifs,Mughal coins  reached the zenith of fine workmanshipin the form ofbeautiful calligraphy.these coins were inscribed in a Persian script known as Nastaliq. this form of writing literally means,hanging,as if the Persian letters were  hanging from top. Mughal coins were issued in three metals,gold silver and copper. gold coins are known as Mohur,silver are known as rupee whereas copper  unit is called Dam.Silver coins are mostly sought after by coin collectors  as they have the maximum number of numismatic varieties.these silver  rupees are easily available ecxept for a few rare mints which otherwise are difficult to acquire.As a result,this guide is concentrated mostly on the  silver Mughal coins. the Mughal coins are being collected through out the world for a  number of reasons.the first and foremost is the beautiful calligraphy and the  ornamentation .the fine calligraphy and the floral backround on the coins of Jahangir are worth observing.similarly gold coins of Mehrabi,Ram-Sita and Ilahi type coins of Akbar equate with best numismatic specimensof the world. another feature of the mughal coins is the couplets.These small prices of an Emperor sometimes equate him with the second  Lord Of Conjunctions,or  with the Monarch Of The Sea and Land ,or he is styled as a Defender of the Faith.Apart from couplets and ornamentation,the Mughal coins are a  treasure house of historical information by way of date,regnal year and the mint place of a coin.All these reconstruct local as well as political history of a  region. Rise of the Mughals In 1505,Zahir -ud -din Babur,after being driven out of transoxina, settled in Afghanistan.Later in 1526 at the famous battle of Panipet, he defeated Ibrahim Lodi,the Sultan of Delhi and founded the Great Mughal Empire in India.His son Humayun,howeve,lost the kingdom to Sher Shah Suri  in 1542.In 1555,he regained his lost empire.however,he could not enjoy the fruits of his success and died soon in 1556.His son and succesor,The great  Mughal emperor Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar,was the real builder of Mughal  Empire in the indian subcontinent.During his long and eventful reign of 50  years,Akbar extended his empire in the provinces of north and central india. his conquests over the western india and the Deccan carried boundaries of his empire to those parts of India.His successors,Jahangir,Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb further extended the empire by frequent conquests.During the  regins of Akbar through Shah Jahan ,India reached at the zenith of art, culture and architecture. Aurangzeb was the last Imperial Mughal Emperor who nurtured the Mughal Empire.His frequent conquests in all the directions of his empire widened the Mughal boundaries and nearly covered the whole of Penisular India.However,by the death of Aurangzeb in 1707,his empire started  crumbling under its own weight.Gradually,the empire started  disintegrating and local chiefs proclaimed independence and later became the authors of princely states.These states started issuing their own coins in the name and style of the Mughal monarchs.Such coins can be identified by the mint names and mit marks. After Aurangzeb,his successors were confined to a smaller area of rule and devoted more of their time to pleasure of life than administation.As a result ,the British took advantage and took a total control of India.Once they were sure of their firm position,The British,in 1858,dethroned Bahadur Shah Zafar,the last Mughal emperor and by that the line of the great Mughals came  to an end. Dating The Mughal coins employed a four -degit Hejira era with one or  two -digit regnal tear.Obverse of a coin represents the year of issue of a coin whereas the latter on the reverse corresponds to the regnal(julus)year of the  emperor.Many a times ,The Hejira year and the regnal year didi not  correspond.As a result ,one may come across two regnal years in a  calendar year or two calender years in one regnal year. As a general rule,date along with the regnal year was inscribed in Persian numerals.However,the first regnal year of each regin was written  in words as ahd. Word Hejira means 'flight' Prophet Muhammad's flight from Mecca on July 16,AD 622.Unlike christian solar year of 365-1/4 days,a Muslim era  is based on lunyar year of 354 days.A 100 Muslim years are equal to 97 Christian years.The Hejira era is represented as AH(Anno Hejira) To convert a Hejira year into a Christian year,follow these steps: i)     Subtract 3%of the Hejira year from the given year and, ii)     Add 622 to the subtracted date. MUGHAL EMPIRE The Mughal Empire , lasted from the early sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. At its peak, around 1700, it covered most of the Indian subcontinent and parts of what is now Afghanistan. Its population at that time has been estimated as between 100 and 150 million, over a territory of over 3 million square km.[1] After 1720, it declined rapidly. The decline has been variously described as due to wars of succession, agrarian crises fueling local revolts, and the growth of a religious revivalism among the Hindu and Sikh population. The last Emperor, whose rule was restricted to the city of Delhi, was imprisoned and exiled by the British after the War of Independence Rebellion of 1857. The classic period of the Empire starts with the accession of Akbar in 1556 and ends with the death of Aurangzeb in 1707. During this period, the Empire was marked by a strongly centralized administration connecting the different regions of India. All the significant monuments of the Mughals, their most visible legacy, date to this period. Mughal is the Persian word for Mongol and was generally used to refer to Central Asian nomads who claimed descent from the Mongol warriors of Genghis Khan. The foundation for empire was established around 1504 by the Timurid prince Babur, when he took control of Kabul and eastern regions of Khorasan controlling the fertile Sind region and the lower valley of the Indus River. In 1526, he defeated the last of the Delhi Sultans, Ibrahim Shah Lodi, at the First Battle of Panipat. These early military successes of the Mughals in India, carried out by an army much smaller in size than its opponents, have been attributed to their cohesion, mobility, and horse-mounted archers. His son Humayun succeeded him in 1530 but suffered major reversals at the hands of the Pashtun Sher Shah Suri and effectively lost most of the fledgling empire before it could grow beyond a minor regional state. From 1540 onwards, Humayun became a ruler in exile, reaching the Court of Persian Safavid ruler in 1542 while his forces still controlled some fortresses and small regions. But when the Afghans fell into disarray with the death of Sher Shah Suri, Humayun returned with a mixed army, raised more troops and managed to reconquer Delhi in 1555. His son Akbar was an infant when Humayun decided to cross the rough terrain of Makran with his wife, and so was left behind to keep him from the rigors of the long journey. Since he did not go to Persia with his parents, he was eventually transported from the fortress in the Sind where he was born to be raised for a time by his uncle Askari in the rugged country of Afghanistan. There he became an excellent outdoorsman, horseman, hunter and learned the arts of the warrior. After the resurgent Humayan conquered the central plateau about Delhi, he was killed a few months later in an accident, leaving an unsettled realm still involved in war. Akbar (1556 to 1605) succeeded his father on 14 February 1556, while in the midst of a war against Sikandar Shah Suri for the reclamation of the Mughal throne. Hence he was thrust onto the throne a