All the states whose coinages form the subject of this chapter, with
the exception of Kashmīr, were once provinces subject to the Dehlī
Sultans, and owed their independence to the ambition of powerful
viceroys, who took advantage at various times of the weakened control
of the central power. The earliest issues of each state were more or
less close imitations of the Dehlī currency, but local conditions soon
introduced modifications in standard and fabric, and in the course of a
century each had generally acquired a well-defined and characteristic
coinage of its own. Prosperity was usually short-lived; the inevitable
period of decay set in; and the coinage, confined at the close to
ill-struck copper pieces, illustrates history in striking fashion.
Bengal, however, was able to maintain its silver currency to the last.