Watch List notes:

HYDERABAD: Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, 1869-1911, AE rupee, Farkhanda Bunyad Hyderabad, AH1301, KM--, Lingen-1var, probably unique, NGC graded MS63 BR, RRRR. The Imperial mint at Madras was closed in 1869 and the machinery sold to the state of Hyderabad. The first attempt to utilize that equipment for coin production did not occur until 1884. The Nizam of Hyderabad, Mahbub Ali Khan, succeeded Afzal ad-Daula at the age of three in 1869, but was only invested with full State control by the British Viceroy Lord Ripon in February 1884. Lingen proposed that this rupee pattern, dated AH1301 (2 Nov. 1883 - 20 Oct. 1884), was intended as a nazarana rupee, arguing the "the omission of the regnal year shows that it must have been used as a presentation piece on the occasion of the investiture celebrations of the Nizam." He also notes that it is "very likely that this issue was struck locally on the old machinery acquired from the Madras Mint." Lingen recorded only an example as a pattern in silver that had appeared in a Noble Numismatics Sale 53 in April 1997, but was unaware of the copper pattern. The silver version is unique, and this copper example is also unique, and both are historically the most pretigious patterns of Hyderabad.

Estimate: 4,000-5,000 USD