When the Dal Khalsa took Lahore in 1765 it struck a rupee. The legend, in Persian, said that the sword, the cauldron, victory and unfailing help had been obtained from Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh. No ruler's name appeared on it.
That formula was kept for eighty-four years, through the misl period and through the whole of Ranjit Singh Ji's reign. He never put his own name or portrait on the coinage of his state.
The coins are called Nanakshahi rupees. The Amritsar mint issue carries a leaf mark and is the commonest. Mints operated at Lahore, Amritsar, Multan, Kashmir and Peshawar.
For a monarchy to strike money in the name of a religious teacher rather than the monarch is close to unique. The nearest parallels are ecclesiastical coinages in medieval Europe, and those were struck by churchmen.
The coinage ended in 1849 with the annexation. Company rupees replaced it and the Nanakshahi issues are now collectors' items on both sides of the border.
The coin carried no ruler's name and no portrait, only the couplet crediting the pot, the sword and victory to the Gurus, and a mint formula naming Amritsar as the seat.
It was struck at Lahore and Amritsar and continued in use through Ranjit Singh Ji's reign, which means a monarchy issued currency that did not name the monarch.
Specimens are in museums in India, Pakistan and Britain. There is no complete published catalogue of the Sikh coinage by mint and year.