Haider Ali: 222 Coin Series

 I bought a lot of 50 coins on ebay that was advertised as coins from Madurai, Tanjore Nayaks. Its been a fascinating journey identifying the exact coins. I am only 5 coins into the lot and I have already found an amazing coin. 


Haider Ali occupied the Mysore throne in a coup overthrowing the Wodeyar king. He is more famous as the father of Tipu Sultan and most Tamil folks would know off him through the popular phrase "Haider Ali Kalam". He issued a series of coins that had 222 in Arabic.



I was curious why he used 222. What was the connection. It is a cryptographic representation of Haider using one Abjad system.  Basically, 
  • Ha = 8
  • Ya = 10
  • Dal = 4
  • Ra = 200
Total is 222. I dont understand how the mapping but I found this fascinating!

 

 

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