Essays & Research

Banda Singh Bahadur

The disciple who struck the first coins ever issued in the name of the Khalsa — displacing the Mughal emperor from the coin of the Punjab for the first time. Two types survive from this period. The Year 2 rupee is unique. His execution in 1716 ended the first Sikh sovereignty; his coins and seal seeded every rupee that followed.

The Sikh Misls

The eleven Misls of the Dal Khalsa confederacy and the most unusual collective coinage in Indian history — rupees struck in no king's name, only the couplets of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh. The declaration at Vaisakhi 1765 and the coins that embodied it: simultaneously the most republican and the most theocratic currency ever struck.

The Sikh Empire

Ranjit Singh's empire at its height: fourteen mints from the Khyber to the Sutlej, from Kashmir to Sindh — all striking coins in the Gurus' names, never the Maharaja's own. Five Maharajas, fifty years, and the coinage that recorded every year of it in silver and gold.

The Fall of the Sikh Empire

How the most powerful state in South Asia outside British India dissolved within a decade of its founder's death — Dogra treachery, Army Panchayats, two Anglo-Sikh Wars, and the stolen bodies of Maharani Jindan and Maharaja Duleep Singh. Seetal, Khushwant Singh, and the post-colonial reading compared.

The First Anglo-Sikh War

The war the Khalsa nearly won. At Ferozeshah, the British came closer to catastrophic defeat than at any engagement since Waterloo. Mudki, Ferozeshah, Aliwal and Sobraon — Lal Singh's betrayal before the crossing, Tej Singh's sabotage of the bridge at Sobraon, and the martyrdom of Sham Singh of Attari. Drawing on Dalhousie's private letters and Henty's contemporary narrative.

The Bhairowal Interregnum

How the British East India Company dismantled Sikh sovereignty in the twenty-seven months between the Treaty of Bhairowal and the annexation — through seven interlocking instruments documented in the Punjab Papers, the Lahore Political Diaries, and the Board of Administration's own records. The Second War was the occasion; the interregnum was the structural cause.

The Second Anglo-Sikh War

The war that closed the Sikh mints forever. Dalhousie's manufactured pretext, Chilianwala's catastrophe — the worst single-day British defeat in Asia since the First Afghan War — and Gujrat's three-hour bombardment of 94 guns. The annexation of 29 March 1849, Dalhousie's private letters, and the last coins of the fourteen imperial mints.

The Cis-Sutlej States

Patiala, Nabha, Jind and Kaithal — the Phulkian chiefs south of the Sutlej, striking coins in the name of Ahmad Shah Durrani from 1764, then under British protection from 1809, then carrying the Gobindshahi couplet for ceremonial use from VS 1893. Their rupees outlasted the Empire by a century, the last struck in 1948.

The Morashahi Rupee

Between VS 1861 and VS 1868, the calligraphers of the Amritsar mint hid a peacock within the Persian legend on selected rupees — commemorating Ranjit Singh's relationship with the courtesan Moran inside the very text that acknowledged the Guru's sovereignty. Four types identified, including a previously undocumented VS 1868 specimen.

The Nimak Mint

The Nimak rupees (Herrli 03.01.04–03.02.04, 11.1g, VS 1904–1905) puzzled numismatists for over a century. This essay establishes through a chain of primary sources — the Lahore Political Diaries, Fleming's 1848 diary, the Punjab Papers — that the mint at Pind Dadan Khan was established by British direction, not Sikh initiative, to replace light Afghan-standard frontier silver with Amritsar Nanakshahis pegged to the Company's rupee.

The Sarhind Mint

Twelve dynasties struck coin at one Punjab mint across four centuries — Akbar's copper dams, Aurangzeb's silver revival, six emperors of the post-Aurangzeb succession crisis, Banda Singh Bahadur's Khalsa rupees, Nadir Shah's brief suzerainty, Ahmad Shah Durrani's grant to Ala Singh after Panipat, and the Patiala Rajashahi rupees that continued until 1948. A complete numismatic record of Punjab's political history, coin by coin.

Sikh Tokens

The copper and brass tokens issued across the Sikh Empire and the Cis-Sutlej states — bazaar currency, commercial tokens, and the small-denomination pieces that circulated where the silver rupee did not reach. Includes the new attribution of the Bikramjit token published in JONS 261 (Autumn 2025).

The Khanda That Wasn’t

An examination of the claim that a Khanda-like symbol on certain Mughal coins represents Sikh influence. The symbol is shown to be a standard decorative motif appearing across multiple reigns and mints — predating the modern Khanda emblem by over two centuries. A case study in numismatic myth-making.

Sikh Medals

Medals and Orders awarded by the Sikh Empire & the Princely states of Faridkot, Patiala, Nabha and Jind; Medals awarded by the East India Company for the Anglo-Sikh wars.

Sikh Stamps

Feudatory stamp issues of Faridkot, Patiala, Nabha and Jind; British India's commemoratives; Republic of India issues honouring the Gurus and Sikh figures; and worldwide issues from Canada, Pakistan, Malaysia, Uganda and beyond. The Sikh world rendered in postage.

The Counterfeit Coin

From 18th-century contemporary forgeries and sand-cast copies to modern CNC-milled fakes — a collector's guide to forgery in Sikh numismatics. Includes three documented case studies on coins that passed through major auction houses despite community identification, an eight-step detection guide, and a section on repaired and tooled coins, undisclosed mount removal, and condition grading.

Coin, Commerce & Control

How the weight differentials of the Sikh Empire's mint network — from Amritsar's Nanakshahi to Peshawar's trade rupee — constitute a recoverable map of the late Silk Road corridor and the political economy of Sikh rule. The sarrafs of Gor Khatri, the Peshawar series weight sequence, and the exchange mechanisms of the Afghan frontier.

The Lahore Sales

The Sikh treasury sold at auction in Ranjit Singh’s own audience hall, over ten days, by Lattey Brothers and Mr Hayes. Read from the only two of at least eight catalogues that survive — including the condition of sale requiring payment in Company’s rupees only.

Gifts & Diplomacy

The exchange of gifts between the Lahore Darbar and the East India Company — from the silver bungalow at Ropar in 1831 and the grand review at Ferozepur in 1838, to the extraction of the Koh-i-Noor in 1849. Each object exchanged was a political statement; each gift carried a calculation.