Establish the reading order

Paramdip Kaur Khera’s British Museum catalogue explains a practical obstacle to reading Sikh coin legends: a Persian verse may begin near the bottom, while its words occupy an elaborate arrangement rather than a consecutive written line. A reading therefore needs more than a photograph rotated to a convenient position. Keep a catalogue’s ordered transcription beside the particular face being examined. Khera also distinguishes inscriptions naming the Gurus from a modern ruler attribution; the historical name within a legend is not automatically the issuer’s personal signature.[1]

A script on one object

The Asian Art Museum’s coin F1999.38.110 offers an identified example. Its catalogue places it at Amritsar and dates it approximately 1800–1839. The object label identifies Persian inscriptions and explains their relationship to Sikh gurus and religious or philosophical ideals. It separately notes Gurmukhi on lower-value copper currency. Those observations distinguish script, denomination and audience rather than making Persian writing a sign that the object must be Mughal. Preserve the object number and the label’s broad date when following the reference. Its discussion of other portrait coins should not be transferred into a claim that this particular entry depicts Guru Nanak.[2]

Legend and mint formula

A Sikh Museum Initiative account supplies a different Lahore example, labelled SMI 7 and dated 1828, or VS 1885. It provides an attributed reading of the Persian legend invoking Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, then separately identifies the wording that names Lahore as the striking place. Its description associates the image with Ranjit Singh making an offering before Guru Nanak and points readers to British Museum numbers 1936,1017.1 and 1865,0802.69.X. Keep the image description, historical wording and the modern writer’s interpretation in separate notes. The post’s cited court chronicle is a further reference, not a manuscript independently read for this guide.[3]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Paramdip Kaur Khera; British Museum Research Publication 190. Catalogue of Sikh Coins in the British Museum: Coin Inscriptions ↗museum numismatic catalogue · Source date: 2011 · Locator: Printed p.16 / PDF p.23: first column on language, verse arrangement and names; complete chapter pp.16–18 also read. Accessed 2026-11-02.Actual locally retained official 89-page PDF inspected; printed p.16 rendered and visually read. New use shares the existing whole-book family with the Moran article. No independent Persian transcription or translation is offered.Return to Establish the reading order, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. Coin, F1999.38.110 ↗primary museum object catalogue · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Full relevant object metadata and Object Label: Amritsar, approx.1800–1839, script/coinage discussion. Accessed 2026-11-02.Complete relevant catalogue body was supplied by the search reader. A later direct request presented a JavaScript/robot-verification page; that response supplied no additional object content. Images were not independently examined and no present display claim is adopted.Return to A script on one object, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Sikh Museum Initiative / Anglo Sikh Virtual Museum. Guru Nanak Coin-Sikh Empire: SMI 7 ↗institutional heritage interpretation · Source date: 2019-10-20 · Locator: Complete 20 October 2019 post: dated SMI 7, attributed Persian reading, mint formula and British Museum number links. Accessed 2026-11-02.Actual full post read. It cites a Gurinder Singh Mann lecture and related book, conservatively kept in the same account family; no independent reading of its court chronicle or proof of two commemorative minting occasions. The similarly named US academic is not assumed to be this account’s author.Return to Legend and mint formula, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-COL-0056 · English edition · human review not performed