Very Fine, Extremely Rare.

Shivarai' paisas of this type, displaying well-engraved legends placed within dotted circles are often identified as Chhatrapati Shivaji's life-time issues. Maheshwari & Wiggins describe this denomination as a '1/2 Paisa', but given the weights of the full units they list are 10.5-13.5., it is evident that the weight of the denomination is almost 2/3rd of the full unit. It is therefore likely that Shivaji struck his coins in fractions of three rather than two, which is complimentary to the predecessor Nizam Shahi and Adil Shahi coinages circulating in his 'Swarajya', the smallest or 1/3rd unit being called a 'Ruka'. The full unit would thus be '3 Rukas' and in docuents the coins are referred to as Tiruka.