Minute
Agreed that we direct the chiefs of Patna & Dacca
to have one rupee taken indiscriminately out of every thousand coined in their
mints and to send musters of those so selected to the Calcutta Assay Master
every month, by whom they are to be assayed
Minute.
The Mint Master begs leave to lay before the Board
two reports from the Assay Master whereby it appears that the
Agreed we enclose copies of them to the resident for
his more particular information and remark to them that some mistake must have
been made in the assays at Moorshidabad and inform
him we mean the 11 sun siccas should be coined in all
the mints exactly the same.
Assay report from Herbert Harris (Assay Master at
|
Specie of Rupee |
Number of each specie to weigh 100 sicca weight |
Quantity of pure silver in 100 sicca weight of each
specie |
Quantity of alloy in 100 sicca weight of each
specie |
Number of sicca Rs that
100 sicca weight of each specie will produce |
Number of current rupees better or worse pr cent on
100 sicca weight of each specie |
|
|
|
100.
. |
91.14.8 |
2.1.4 |
100 |
Batta on sicca wt curr Rs |
16 |
|
Moorshedabad Siccas |
100.1.6 |
97.14.8 |
2.1.4 |
100 |
“ |
16 |
|
Moorshedabad sonats with the mark |
100.6 |
97.14.8 |
2.1.4 |
100 |
“ |
16 |
|
|
100.2 |
97.8 |
2.8 |
99.9.3 |
“ |
15.8.3 |
|
|
101.2 |
96.10.8 |
3.5.4 |
98.11.7 |
“ |
14.8.6 |
|
|
100.3 |
96.10.8 |
3.5.4 |
98.11.7 |
“ |
14.8.6 |
|
Moorshedabad sonats without the mark |
Vary in weight |
95.13.4 |
4.2.8 |
97.14 |
“ |
13.8.9 |
|
French Arcots |
102.
. |
95.6.8 |
4.9.4 |
97.7.2 |
“ |
13.-.9 |
|
|
102.
. |
94.2.8 |
5.13.3 |
96.2.9 |
“ |
11.8.9 |
|
Old |
|
93.13.8 |
6.2.4 |
95.14 |
“ |
11.3.6 |
|
New |
103.2 |
93.12 |
6.4 |
95.12 |
“ |
11.1 |
|
Moorshedabad Arcots |
102.
. |
93.10.4 |
6.5.8 |
95.10.4 |
“ |
10.15 |
|
Old Ouzeree Rupees |
104 to 106 |
90 |
10.
. |
91.14.8 |
“ |
6.11 |
|
New Ouzaree Rupees |
104.4 |
83.15.4 |
16.-.8 |
85.12 |
Worse on 100 Sicca wt
Curr Rs |
-.8.6 |
|
New ouzeries 2nd sort |
Various weights |
80.
. |
20.
. |
81.11.6 |
“ |
5.3.6 |
|
Narrainy rupees |
|
43.5.4 |
56.10.8 |
44.4.4 |
“ |
48.10.5 |
Public Letter dated 25th January 1770 from
Calcutta to London
We have assured you in our letter of
Resolution
For the above mentioned reasons it is therefore
agreed and resolved
That 12 sun siccas shall be
coined in the several mints, in the same manner as the 11 suns were last year,
and that the annual coinage of siccas shall hereafter
continue to be marked as usual with the current year of the King’s reign.
That the 11 suns shall not fall in their value, but
shall pass on the same footing as siccas of the
present and every future year throughout the provinces, and that whenever siccas of any future year shall be issued they shall not
reduce the siccas of the former years as far back as
the 11 suns to the state of sonauts, but they shall
be considered & pass in payment at the same value as the siccas of the current year.
That the 10 sun sicca shall be considered and shall
pass as a sonaut rupee and that all other species of
rupee shall pass and be received as heretofore.
Agreed also that the above resolutions shall be
transmitted to the Moorshidabad & Patna revenue
councils in the following letters for their guidance:
There then follow copies of the letters
Letter from the
By the new regulations which you have been pleased to
establish, sonaut rupees, we apprehend, will no
longer be procurable for the payment of the brigades stationed in this
province. We at present issue ¾ sonauts & ¼ siccas and the siccas are valued
at 15 per cent better then current agreeably to a resolution established during
Lord Clive’s administration, but of late their value in the bazaar has only
been from 2 to 3 per cent better than sonauts, and
the Moorshedabad siccas
have been one per cent worse then the Patna siccas,
notwithstanding we have done all in our power to make them pass at an equal
rate, and in other parts of the province the difference is still greater.
The troops in consequence have not failed to express
some discontent at being paid even a 1/4 in siccas
and of course they will be much more dissatisfied now that siccas
must be paid them in a much larger proportion
Letter from
We have received your letters of the 6th
& 7th instant and are greatly concerned at the inconveniences
which Lieut. Col. Grant represents to be experienced by the troops at Monghyr on account of the Muxedavad
siccas advanced to them in part of their monthly pay.
Tho’ our resolution is fixed for carrying into execution
the new regulations concerning the coinage, and we expect every endeavour on
your part to enforce them within your department, we shall consider at the same
time on some measures to prevent the army being sufferers, and in the meantime
we desire that you will issue as many sonauts to the
troops as you possibly can.
It appears surprizing to us
that the troops at Monghyr, or indeed anyone, should
be able to distinguish the Patna siccas from those of
Muxadavad after our positive orders have been issued
that all siccas coined at the different mints of Muxadavad, Patna, Calcutta and Dacca should be of the same
fineness and stamp and that they should have no distinguishing mark whatever.
We desire that you should make an enquiry into this matter and inform us of the
result.
There is then a letter from
Letter from
We have been favoured with your letter of 16th
September and shall pay strict obedience to your commands.
We are informed that in the mint at Moorshedabad the rupees are stamped immediately upon
cooling, whereas here they are rubbed over with lime juice or some other acid
and put a second time in the fire, before they are stamp’t
and that this makes a difference in the colour. If you approve it, we might
cause the same mode to be observed here as we are told is done at the city, but
we believe in spite of every precaution which can be taken, the shroffs will
still continue to distinguish the coinage of the different mints. We beg leave
to enclose for your observation four Moorshedabad and
four
Ordered that the rupees be sent to the Mint Master
with the directions to assay them and report the results to the Board.
Agreed the following directions be sent in reply
We have received your letter of the 8th instant,
enclosing musters of siccas from the Muxadabad and Patna mints in which a difference of colour
is very perceptible, and to put a stop to a distinction which tends to the
obstruction of our design of having nothing in the appearance of the rupees coined
in the several mints by which they could be distinguished from each other, we
desire that particular care may be taken in future that the same method of
coining may be used at the Patna mint as in that of Moorshedabad.
Letter from Herbert Harris (Calcutta Mint Master) to
Government dated
I have now the honor to lay before you the reports of
the four Moorshedbad and the four
Report of four Moorshedabad
siccas assayed at
Weight 1 oz. 9 dwt.
22 ½ grs.
Average Wt 7 dwt.
11 5/8 grs.
Assay 2
rupees better 12 ½ dwts
1
ditto 12 ¼ dwts
1
ditto 12 ¾ dwts
Average better 12 ½ Dwts. Then
English standard, should weigh 7 dwts 11 2/3 grs, is therefore 1/8gr less than weight, and should be 13 dwts better than English standard, therefore is ½ dwt worse then should be; the deficiency in weight and
fineness is equivalent to 4 annas, 5 pice per cent.
Report of four
Weight 1 oz 9 dwts. 22 2/3 grs.
Average weight 7 dwts. 11 2/3 grs.
Assay 2
rupees better 13 dwts
2
ditto 13 ¼ dwts
Average better 13 1/16 dwts
better then English standard is therefore 1/16 of a pennyweight better than the
sicca standard, equal to five pice and one quarter of a pie per cent.
Agreed copies of them be sent to the Councils of
Revenue at Moorshedabad & Patna with the following letters
We herewith send you the reports of the Mint Master’s
assay of 4
By these reports you will perceive that the Moorshedabad sicca is deficient both in weight and fineness
and on the contrary that the
As such a deviation from the standard and
consequently such a difference in the rupees coined at the two mints must
obstruct most essentially the success of our plan, and will be productive of
many inconveniences besides reflecting on the credit of Government, we must
particularly desire that you will investigate the causes of it and be careful
that the siccas be in future kept up to the standard
to their weight and fineness, and we desire that you will be regular in sending
us monthly a rupee taken indiscriminately out of those in the mint that the
same may be assayed and reported to us.
Public Letter dated 15th November 1771
from Calcutta to London
To enforce and support these regulations which we
have made in regard to the coinage has been our constant endeavour and care. We
were therefore surprised on being informed from
As our regulations had forbidden any distinction in
the stamp and the mark, or difference in the weight or fineness of any of the siccas, we were at a loss to find out the method by which
they distinguished the
Our immediate orders for having the same method of
coining pursued in both mints and injunctions for having the standard and
fineness strictly adhered to will, we hope, prevent in future such distinctions
in their current value, and remove those obstructions which have been thrown in
the way of the new regulations by the shroffs, whose chief support and maintenance
have been the batta and exchange of rupees.
Letter to
We enclose for your information the copy of a report delivered
to us by the Mint Master whereby it appears that the Patna Sicca sent down in
your letter of the […] proves to be half a penny weight worse than sicca
standard.
We deswire that you will
issue strict orders for keeping up the coin to the standard and purity, and
inform the persons employed in the mint that a repetition of this fault will
meet our warm [...]
Letter from
We have been favoured with your letters of the 20th
& 26th February. I consequence of the report which has been made
to you of the badness of the Patna sicca which we transmitted to you the 6th
inst., we called before us the officers of the mint and severely reprimanded
them and warned them of the punishment to which a repetition of their neglect
would expose them. And we beg leave to enclose for you observation three sicca
rupees which we have now caused to be taken indiscriminately out of the mint.
Letter from
We herewith transmit you a separate account of the
real charges of coinage in our mint. The duties paid by the merchants are as
follows
On silver after refining it to the proper standard
Sicca 1.4 [per cent Sicca]
On gold 5 anna sicca per Mohur or [sicca Rs 31.4 per cent mohurs]
When sonauts are brought to
be recoined into sicca the merchants pay more or less according to the
difference of batta in the bazaar between sicca and sonauts.
If it be two per cent they give 102 sonts to be made
into 100 siccas. If three per cent they give 103 and
so on
Letter from the Calcutta Mint Master (Herbert Harris)
to Government dated
I beg leave to submit to your consideration the
accompanying letter from Mr Touchet, the Assay
Master, respecting some gold mohurs which have of
late been issued from the mint at Patna considerably below the fixed standard,
and tho’ it is not easy to trace how long this
debasement of the coin has taken place, yet some judgement might I believe be
formed was the quantity of gold coined at the several mints compared together.
It is encumbent on me to
observe that tho’ the gentlemen under whose
inspection this department belongs may be no judge of the fineness of gold, yet
the black people who have been brought up in the mint will acquire from
practice by the touch very competent knowledge, especially where the metal is
required in its greatest purity, the alloy being so very small that it cannot
possibly make any perceptible alteration in the colour.
It is almost unnecessary to mention to you gentlemen
the very destructive consequences that may attend the debasement of [ye] gold coin when it is so well known that the proportion
observed between the sicca rupee and the gold Mohur tends evidently to
encourage the importation of gold in preference to silver. How much more so
must it when the coin is adulterated.
Letter from Samuel Touchet
(Assay Master) to Herbert Harris (Mint Master), dated
Having been induced by the badness of their
appearance to assay some of the Patna twelve sonne
gold mohurs, of which there are great numbers now
circulating here, I think it my duty to acquaint you with the result of my
experiment in order that the same may be laid before the Honble the President
in Council, that they be convinced how dangerous it is to suffer a coinage,
unless under the control of persons sufficiently acquainted with that branch.
These gold mohurs which bear the Patna stamp for the
present year are pretty exact in weight and therefore not likely to be objected
to when offered in payment to people who are no further judges of their
intrinsic value, but turn out in the assay 22 carats 2 grains fine instead of
23 carats 3 ¾ grains, the standard fixed for gold mohurs
in 1769, and are therefore deficient 23 fine parts out of 383 contained in the
above standard, which constitute near 6 per cent of their value.
I likewise sent you herewith a report of the weight
and assay of one Moorshedabad gold Mohur of the
present years coinage, which you will perceive likewise something deficient in
fineness, but I must here observe that the above mentioned standard which
requires only one 384th part of alloy & 383 parts fine gold
tends more to enhance the expense of coinage and foil the Assay Master than to
produce any advantage derived from its excessive fineness, as it increases the
labour in refining and as no experiment can at all times be ascertained with
the degree of accuracy necessary to adhere to so fine a standard.
Letter to George Vansittart
(Chief at
We enclose you a copy an address and report from our
Mint Master by which it appears that some gold mohurs
have been issued from your mint of a quality inferior to standard. We desire an
enquiry may be made after the offenders that they may be severely punished if
discovered, and as no payments on account of the revenues are made in the gold
coinage, we are opinion that no mohurs should be
coined, excepting a few at the commencement of each year for the usual nuzzers to the King etc.
Minute entered by Mr Barwell
Upon the report made by the Assay Master of the value
of the gold mohurs, I think it necessary to observe
that during the few months I presided at that factory, I refused every
application that was made to me for the coining of gold specie because I
thought it in no respect tended to bring into circulation gold bullion, or to
encourage its importation. I mention this circumstance that the inattention of
the officers of the
Letter dated
On a report made to us by the Mint and Assay Master
of the business of the gold currency coined at Patna which although pretty
exact in weight turned out in assay only 22 carrats 2
grains fine instead of 23 carrats 3¾ grains which was
the fixed standard, we resolved, as no payments on account of the revenues were
made in the gold specie, to forbid their coining any more except a few at the
commencement of each year for the usual nussars to
the King etc., at the same time directed them to enquire after the offenders
and if possible to discover them that they might be severely punished.
…To remove the diversity of silver currency minted in four mints of the
Bengal Presidency he [Hastings] had already abolished Patna and Dacca [mints]
in 1773… [where this info came is not clear]
Letter from H. Cottrell (member of the Committee of
Revenue) to Government dated
Queries stated by the Honble the Governor General & Council
1.
Whether it is
not expedient to re-establish the mints of
2.
Whether
supposing the Antient (sic) mints to be
re-established all the rupees shall be struck as has hitherto been the practice
with the name of Moorshedabad only or the rupees of
each mint shall bear the name of the place to which it belongs.
I should esteem the re-establishment of the mint at
Should only one mint be established in
This subject might be considered in an other light. Whether these mints are
established by royal firmaunds or what authority.
If the former, how far the Company as Dewan have the
power of suspending their force, and if they have not that power how far they
may by thus exercising the power of the sovereign afford arguments to the
prejudice of the dewanny right to such as wish to
consider this as a conquered country. But I will wave considering it in this
point of view as I am not master of the circumstances on which the argument is
to be founded.
With respect to the name to be struck on the coinage
provided the rupees of the different mints are received in all the treasuries
at the same value, I can see no objection to their bearing the true name where
they are struck. The only reason to be given against it is to prevent the
fluctuation of batta upon them in the common intercourse among merchants and
the inconvenience attending that. But there can never be so much similitude
between the coinage of one mint and another but it will be discoverable to the
nice eye of a shroff from which adulteration can scarce lie concealed. And the
fluctuation of their value will be as effectively prevented by receiving them
all at the same rate into the public treasuries or by any means whatsoever
Letter from J Holmes (member of the Committee of
Revenue) to Government, dated
The remote distance of those settlements from the
Presidency and each other added to the extent of the country within the
provinces would seem to plead for a re-establishment of their mints.
It may also be urged that if they are not
re-established, the shroffs will have it in their power to impose what batta they
please upon old or debased money to the great prejudice of commerce in general, and of the Company’s investment in particular.
Upon these arguments it may be observed in the one
case that extent of territory will probably never impede the free circulation
of an uniform established currency into all parts of the provinces, and in the
other that the Company’s commercial interests and those of the state being now
united, all partial distinctions amongst the shroffs are of course abolished
since they are no longer practicable. Consequently should a batta be found at
any time necessary to bring the depreciated coins upon a par with the new, it
would be invariably as the demand and the quantity of specie in circulation. Therefore could not be more a grievance than
new money under similar circumstances of an insufficiency for the purposes of
trade and ordinary occasions would in like manner be subject to a rateable
batta,
When the antient mints of
The immense wealth thus unavoidably entering in the
provinces, it became requisite to devise a means at once of facilitating its
currency and of freeing the merchants from the risk and expense of transporting
it to Muxadabad.
To these reasons may be added the custom which prevailed
of a triennial recoinage of the sicca which was the only legal current rupee
throughout the provinces. The usage being now abolished, this part of the
necessity of those mints ceases, of course, but more especially as the small
quantities of bullion now imported are confined chiefly to
For these reasons I image a mint at the Presidency
would alone answer the purpose of circulating specie throughout the provinces
unless it should be thought eligible to continue one at Moorshedabad
on account of the Dutch having the privilege of coining in the Government’s
mints.
Should more than one mint be established, either the
rupees of each ought to bear the name of the place to which it belongs or some
distinguishing characteristic in order that impositions may be traced and if a
distinction should be deemed necessary it ought to be such a one as may be
known by immediate inspection which even the shroffs themselves have difficulty
in doing at present
Letter dated
We have received the opinions of the Board of Trade
and the several provincial councils upon questions, referred to them,
respecting the benefits or disadvantages that would accrue from re-establishing
the mints at Patna and Dacca and in case they should be re-established whether
it would be most eligible to stamp the coins with the name of the station of
each separate mint or continue as formerly to affix only that of Moorshadabad. The sentiments returned to us on this subject
were various, and as we deemed the discussion and determination of it, a matter
of great importance, we only then recorded the different letters, leaving the
general subject to be hereafter considered.
Letter to Court 30th April 1781
We have authorised the establishment of mints for the copper coinage at Pulta and