Lot 376

Independent Kingdoms, Sind, Amirs of Khairpur, Silver Rupee, 11.06 gms, 33.42 mm, Bhakkar Mint (fully visible at top on rev), Mir Sohrab Khan Talpur was a Baloch ruler and the founder of the Khairpur State in Sindh, ruling from approximately 1783 to 1830 AD. During his reign, silver rupees were struck at the Bhakkar Mint in the name of Mahmud Shah Durrani (AH 1216-1233, 1801-1818 AD), reflecting the continued nominal authority of the Durrani Empire over the region despite the Talpurs exercising independent local power. This particular silver rupee, dated before AH 1245/AD 1829 with the date off the flan, bears the Bhakkar mint name fully visible on the reverse and represents the distinctive early 19th-century coinage of Sindh under Talpur rule. Such issues are historically significant for their regional style, political symbolism, and association with the emergence of the Khairpur State under Mir Sohrab Khan Talpur. The unusually large flan diameter of 33.42 mm further suggests the possibility that the coin may have been struck over a pre-existing host coin, a practice not uncommon in regional mints of the period where older or foreign silver coins were occasionally restruck for local circulation, large flan, similar to Zeno # 3941, very fine, rare.