Extremely Rare Mule Coin of Jalal ud-Din Muhammad Akbar – Mughal Empire – Agra mint Silver Rupee

Obverse: Arabic legend Kalima Shahada within a square, the four Caliph’s names in the

Reverse: Persian legend “Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar Badshah Ghazi” within a square & “zarb Agra” partly visible in the margin, “AH 964”

This is an extremely rare mule coin, as the reverse die used for this piece belongs to a Sher Shah Suri-period Gwalior mint coin. The unexpected combination of an Akbar obverse with a Sher Shah Gwalior reverse die makes this coin fall into the extremely rare category. Only a handful of such mule examples are known to exist in numismatic collections.

Jalal ud-Din Muhammad Akbar emerged as one of the most influential rulers of medieval India, shaping an empire defined by stability, reform, and rich cultural expression. During the initial years of Mughal expansion, mints across North India were still adapting to new administrative standards after the fall of the Sur Dynasty. Old Sur-period dies occasionally remained in circulation, leading to rare transitional minting anomalies. These moments reflect the complex shift from regional Sur authority to unified Mughal control, capturing a fascinating glimpse of the evolving political and monetary landscape of the 1560s.