Although it is by no means uncommon to find foreign coins in Britain, this 1/8 Anna coin has travelled a very long way from its place of origin.

Struck between 1781-1784 in a settlement called Fulta, near Kolkata, India, it was produced for the Bengal Presidency of the East India Company. Although by this time the East India Company directly controlled much of India, it bears the name of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II on its obverse face (heads).

Both faces of this coin have inscriptions rendered in Persian script. The obverse (heads) reads Shah Alam Badshah (Emperor Shah Alam) and the reverse (tails) reads Sanat 22 Julus (struck in the 22nd year of his reign).

These coins, and their counterparts in larger denominations, were produced in large quantities by a merchant called John Princep, who held a contract from the East India Company to produced coinage intended for local use.

These were some of the first machine-made coins to be struck in India, replacing the use of Cowrie shells which had previously been utilised as everyday money.