In conclusion, we must consider the coins of the Nawāb-wazīrs and kings of Oudh or Awadh. The existence of this province as a separate principality began in 1720, when the wazīr, Sa’ādat Ḵẖ̱ān, was created Ṣūbahdār. From 1754 to 1775 the Mug̱ẖal mint of Muḥammadābād-Banāras was under the control of the third Nawāb-wazīr Shujā’u-d-daula. From 1784 till 1818 succeeding nawābs continued to mint in Lakhnau (Lucknow) the famous “Machhlīdār” rupees, so called from the fish (Fig. 9, 5), the royal badge of Awadh, appearing on the reverse. All of these bear the regnal date 26, and continue the mint name Banāras. Other mints worked by the nawābs from time to time were Barelī, after 1784, Ilahābād, 1776-1780, and Āṣafnagar. In 1818 Lord Hastings persuaded G̱ẖ̱āzīu-d-dīn Ḥaidar to assume the title of king, and from that time the regal series of coins begins. The royal arms of Awadh, in various forms, appear on the obverse of gold, silver and copper of G̱ẖ̱āzīu-d-dīn and his four successors, until the forced abdication of the last king, Wājid ’Alī Shāh, in 1856. On the reverse, the inscription, following the Mug̱ẖal example, takes the form of a couplet; and silver and gold are struck to the Mug̱ẖal standard (Pl. XII, 3). Fractional pieces of the rupee and muhar were struck in all reigns. Though better executed and finer in metal than those of most other successors of the Mug̱ẖals, these coins display a certain monotony, all denominations in the three metals following the prescribed pattern for the reign. Certain modifications in the inscription, however, take place from time to time. The coins of Wājid ’Alī Shāh’s seventh and eighth years, of which five denominations in each metal are known, are probably the finest of the series. Two large silver medals are associated with the Awadh dynasty, the first commemorating Shujā’u-d-daula’s victory over the Rohillas at Mirān Katra, in 1774, the second struck by G̱ẖ̱āzīu-d-dīn Ḥaidar, in honour of his coronation on 1st Muḥarram A.H. 1235. On the obverse of the latter is an ornate and very realistic portrait of the king, and on the reverse the arms of Awadh. Certain “Machhlīdār” rupees and muhars, bearing the date A.H. 1229, on which the mint name _Ṣūbah Awadh_ occurs, are believed to have been minted by the Lucknow mutineers. It is not unfitting that this short history of Indian coins should close with a description of the money of the Awadh kings; for this latest scion of the great Mug̱ẖal currency not only received its sanction from an English Governor-General, but manifested, in the adoption of armorial bearings of a Western type for its obverse, the beginning of that European influence, which, later on in the nineteenth century, was to revolutionise the coin types of the few Indian states, Ḥaidarābād, Travancore, Gwāliār, Alwar, Baroda, etc., which retained the right of minting after the introduction of the British Imperial currency. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY GENERAL