The Ceded & Conquered Provinces
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The
Nawāb Vizier of Awadh, Sadat ‘Alī, was forced into a treaty to cede
various of his territories to the East India Company, a treaty which was
signed on At about the same time, General Lake
was engaged in the second Maratha war, which led to him capturing, inter alia, Dehlī on These territories became known as the
Ceded and Conquered Provinces and they brought with them the working mints of
Allahābād, Barelī, Farrukhābād,
Sahāranpūr, Dehlī, Āgra and possibly
Najībābād and Hāthras (but see later). By these means therefore, the East
India Company acquired at least six and possibly more working mints, which
therefore fall into the category ‘transitional mints’, that is mints that
were kept operational for some time after they fell into British hands, but
whose output continued in the native style. After due consideration, the
mints at Allahābād, Barelī, Sahāranpūr and
Najībābād and Hāthras (if they existed) were closed in
1805 and a new mint was built at Farrukhābād to produce a new style
of copper and silver coin. This mint was closed in 1824 The mint at Dehlī was kept in
operation for a considerable number of years to supply coins for payment of
the Emperor and was not closed until 1857/58, whilst that at Āgra was
probably closed at the same time as most of the other mints, in 1805,
although no record of this has been found. Further mints were acquired after the
third Maratha war in 1818 and these included Saugor and Sohagpur.
Sohagpur was closed quite quickly but Saugor was
kept open for quite a few years (see p. 479 et seq.). At about this time, consideration was given to opening
a mint at Ajmēr, but this never happened. A new mint was built at Saugor
to supply Farrukhābād-rupees to the |
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Ajmēr Mint There
had been a Moghul mint at Ajmēr since the time of Akbar and this
continued to operate under the Marathas [2]. Several entries in the records refer
to the possibility of opening a mint at Ajmēr, initially in 1818 [3]: I have the honor to
transmit a copy of a report received from Mr Wilder on the subject of a mint
being established at Ajmere. It
would appear from Mr Wilder’s report that many advantages would accrue from
this measure in the district of Ajmere, but I apprehend still greater
benefits would arise if the Most Noble the Governor General should deem it
proper to recommend to all the petty states assuming the right of coinage to
issue rupees of an equal or even superior value to our Sonaut or Kuldar
rupee, as a great part of the specie remitted to Rajpootana for the payment
of the troops is said not to return into our bazaar or treasury as it is
bought up by the bankers of the country to send to different mints for the
purpose of being recoined into rupees of very inferior value, but current in
the country, whilst our rupee is depreciated, that is to say it will not
purchase grain or other produce of the district at its intrinsic value in
proportion to the coin in currency. I feel myself however, treading on ground
of which I am perfectly ignorant as I am quite at a loss how to account for
the offer of the banker, and from whence his profits are to be derived. In
1819 the Calcutta mint committee went so far as to recommend that a mint
should temporarily be established at Ajmēr [4]: …7th and the
temporary establishment of a mint in Although
the Bengal Government agreed with this suggestion, they postponed making a
final decision [5], and no mint ever appears to have
been opened at Ajmir, although one was established at Saugor (see later in
this chapter). The
records of the EIC held in the British Library have been studied. No
information about the mint at Āgra has yet been discovered although the
Calcutta mint master was sent to Āgra in 1820 for some unspecified
reason [6]. Āgra was captured by the British
on
In 1803 a Mint
Committee was appointed, consisting of the Magistrate (???) and Collector (Mr
Richard Ahmuty). This committee was charged with superintending the mint and
making suggestions to the Governor General about how it might be better
regulated [10]. Their first task was to
report to the Governor General their views on the idea of introducing a new
copper coinage into the Ceded Provinces [11]. They
replied to this in September 1803 [12] and
again in December [13]. The
Mint Committee considered that a new copper coinage would be found useful
because the existing pice in circulation were worn almost flat and had lost a
certain amount of weight. They considered that a small profit might be
derived for Government from such a coinage, but warned that the price of
copper would go up once the local merchants came to hear of the proposed new
coinage. They therefore recommended that the Government should quickly
purchase sufficient copper to manufacture about 3,000,000 pice with a weight
equal to that of 1½ rupees for each pice. Their recommendation for the design
was that of the Allahābād rupee. The Governor General had also
asked for advice from Barelī and Farrukhābād, so the ideas of
the Allahābād Mint Committee were not the only suggestions that
were under consideration and they did not result in a new copper issue. In September 1803 the Mint
Committee also sent an account of the coins produced since the mint had been
reopened (see table below) and explained that the charges made for recoining
silver brought to the mint had been adjusted to match those at the Lucknow mint,
which was controlled by the Nawab Vizier [14].
In
May 1804 the Allahābād mint was ordered by the Governor General to
suspend coinage due to a suspicion that the silver content of the rupees
produced there was below standard [15]. The
matter was further investigated and the suspicion was confirmed [16]. It also became clear that the Collector,
Richard Ahmuty, must have known about the debasement and had tried to conceal
it. He was dismissed from his post, the dies for the rupees were sent to
Calcutta for storage [17] and
the mint was never reopened. Richard Ahmuty went on to serve on the Mint
Committee at [Barelī] but was allowed to resign from the EIC in about
1808 [18]. The identity of the two types of
rupees is difficult to ascertain. Allahābād rupees, with dates of
AH 1216 or later, show a sword and ball on the obverse (see below). These
seem to have developed over a number of years as shown below and are
presumably the ‘shumshary’ rupees:
More
recently a rupee with a sword and ball and the letter A on the reverse has
come to light. This coin is dated 1217, and must fall into the British period.
The ‘A’ could have several meanings – ‘Allahābād’ or, more likely,
‘Ahmuty’, being two. Immediately
following the cession of the territory by the Nawāb Vizier in 1801, the
Collectors of Rohilkhand, Messrs. Deane and Leycester farmed the mint of
Barelī to Atma Ram and his partner, Sheojee Mull, for a price of 9001
rupees per year. However, these two were caught in fraudulent practices soon
after they received the farm, and they were committed for trial and found
guilty by the Muḥammadun law officers, who assisted at their trial, and
the farm was annulled. The mint was then brought directly under the control
of Government (from The person first appointed to the
office of darogah was Ali Muzaffar Khan, a respectable native of Bihār.
On his being promoted to the position of a Jehsuldar in November 1802, he was
succeeded by a person called Muzzubher Hooseyn, a native of Bhangulpoor, who
continued in this role until at least December 1803 [19]. This entry in the records also reveals
the reason for the presence of at least two of the letters found on the
Barelī rupees: When the system of farming the mint
was abolished, no alteration was introduced into the standard of silver
except to rectify the abuses. But, in order to mark the period at which the
change of system took place, the Persian letter He (H) which, as the first
letter of the name of the late Subah (Hoosseyn Ali Khan) had been stamped
upon the rupee, was discontinued, that of Wa (W) being substituted in its
stead, in compliment to the Honorable the Lieutenant Governor. The Persian
letter alif (A) is also found on
some of the Barelī rupees. Since we know that he immediately preceded wa,
and since both he and alif are dated 1216, it seems likely
that the alif marked coins preceded
those marked he. Perhaps the alif stood for Atma Ram who farmed the
mint immediately following the cession. The rupees produced at Barelī were examined by the
mint master at Calcutta and reported on in March 1803 [20]. His view was not at all
complimentary. He considered, inter
alia, the design to be easily susceptible to drilling, and doubted that
an extensive coinage of such a design was practicable. In June 1803, a mint committee was established to
superintend the mint and to suggest to the Governor General any regulations
that might have been required to improve its activities [21]. This Committee consisted of the
Agent to the Governor General (Mr FitzRoy) and the Magistrate and Collector.
They were asked to provide detailed statements of the money coined since the
mint had come under the control of the EIC in 1801. They were unable to
provide figures for the first few months (from the date of cession until In 1803, the mint committee at Barelī, like those at
Allahābād and Farrukhābād, were asked for their opinion
on the value of introducing a new copper coinage into the Ceded Provinces [23]. The Commercial Resident at
Barelī appears to have been the only EIC source of copper within the
Ceded Provinces (21,500 rupees worth). He suggested to 1st how far the measure was
necessary for the relief of the community and 2ndly whether, though not
absolutely necessary, it would be advisable to adopt it, as furnishing
Government with means of disposing of a quantity of its copper on
advantageous terms. On the first principle, the Committee compared the rates
that the pice were sold at over the previous ten years in large towns, by
asking the shroffs for information. However, the results were inconclusive
and contradictory. No pice had been coined in the region since the cession,
and the pice in circulation consisted of Nudjeeb Khannees, which had been
coined at Najībābād about 45 year previously, and Shumsher
Shahis, which bore the figure of a sword and had been produced at
Barelī. Following this, a type of pice called Mutchelee Daurs had been
produced, bearing a fish, and then Kuttaur Shahees stamped with a type of
dagger. These were the four main types of pice in circulation and, since there
seemed to be an abundance of them, the Committee did not consider that a new
copper coinage was really necessary on these grounds. On the second principle of whether
Government could make a profit from a copper coinage, the Committee
considered this unlikely, and so this also did not provide grounds for
supporting a new copper coinage. However, the Committee did consider
that a new copper coinage would be necessary if a new silver coinage was
introduced. The authorities at Calcutta must have
considered using the Nudjeeb Khannee pice as the model for the proposed new
copper coinage, because the Barelī mint committee wrote to them in
August 1804 suggesting that this might not be the best option. This letter
also contained much more information about the proposed reformation of the
coinage in the Ceded and Conquered Provinces [26]. In June 1804, the Barelī mint
committee forwarded a letter from Mr Blake, who had superintended the mint at
Patna (see chapter 5), with his observations and estimates of costs of a new
silver coinage for the Ceded Provinces [27]. Mr Blake was clearly the expert that
was needed to implement a new uniform coinage for the Ceded Provinces, and,
subsequent to this letter, he was appointed mint master at the
Farrukhābād mint (see section on Farrukhābād mint). The Barelī mint committee wrote
again, in April 1805, about the proposals to reform the currency [28]. Despite having interviewed numerous
people they had been unable to obtain any useful information. Following the decision to close all
the mints in the Ceded and Conquered Provinces except for the mint at
Farrukhābād (see Farrukhābād section), the mint committee
at Barelī informed Calcutta that their mint ceased operations on
Mintage
of rupees at Bareilly 1802 to 1805 [32] Total output for the mint from March 1802 to end July
1805 was reported to be 6,921,959 Rs [33]. In August 1805 the mint committee
was asked to send the figures for mint production directly to the Accountant
General [34] and these figures are shown in the
graph above. Dehlī
was the site of a Moghul mint from the time of Humayun. Successive Emperors
had coins struck with this mint name until AH 1048, when Shāh Jahān
had a city built near Dehlī, which he named
Shāhjahānābād with the epithet dār-al-khilāfa. Coins with this mint name were struck
by his successors. The Moghul Emperor, Shāh
‘Ālam II, who was nominal ruler of what remained of the empire, was in
Dehlī for the greater part of his reign, but was a mere puppet. In 1803,
during the second Maratha war, Lord Lake took Dehlī and thenceforth the
rule of the Moghuls was confined to the palace and the emperor had no
official function [35]. Although the British had effective
control of the mint at Dehlī, it remained nominally under the authority
of the Moghul Emperor, and it is therefore debatable as to whether or not it
falls into the definition of a transitional mint. However, there are several
interesting entries in the records referring to this mint and it has
therefore been included as such. Sanjay Garg has published much information
from the records held in the National Archives of India [36]. The present discussion is based on
the records held in the British Library in The
first reference to coinage at Dehlī found in the EIC records occurs in
1806 when the Dehlī Resident (Mr Seton) wrote a long letter explaining
that the emperor insisted on his stipend (58,000 Rs) being paid in Dehlī
rupees but that these were not easily available. They had to be bought on the
open market, but there was a batta of 3% or more. In the letter he stated [37]: No mode of defeating
this attempt [i.e. by
the shroffs to charge high batta]
appeared to me so effectual as that of increasing the local circulation of
the Delhi rupees, by coining into that specie the Bareilly rupees then in the
treasury. I found however, that from the inferior quality of this last specie
and from the expense of coining and the wastage of the Delhi mint, the
measure would be attended with loss, and that 100 Bareilly rupees would only
produce 94Rs 14ans. Of course, the idea was abandoned. The
next reference is found in a series of letters (dated 1813) in which a Mr
Fraser, the First Assistant to the Resident, asked for a percentage of the
mint duties to be paid to him. This was rejected by Government. However, the
letters also state that: …the mint is under the
superintendence of the officer in charge of the Revenue Department… thereby
confirming the direct control of a British official [38]. By 1816, a decision had been made to
put machinery into the mint at Dehlī. The machinery was actually built
in Calcutta and sent to Dehlī but there was no-one there who knew how it
worked [39]. The plan was to strike
Farrukhābād rupees at the Dehlī mint and, by January 1818, all
that was needed were the dies [40]. The mint master at Calcutta was instructed
to prepare the dies for Dehlī [41] but the mint committee and the Bengal
Government were becoming uneasy about their ability to control the quality of
the output of a mint at Dehlī [42], [43]. A letter to Metcalf (the Dehlī
Resident) contains the following statement: On the supposition that
a regular mint is to be maintained at Delhi, it would undoubtedly be
convenient that the impression of the rupees there coined, should correspond
with the coinage of the mint at Farrukhābād and that consequently
dies should be furnished to [?] the Mint Master at Farrukhābād. It
will, however, in that case be very essential that due precautions should be
taken for guarding against any defect in the coinage of the Delhi mint in
regard to weight or standard. For
this purpose, besides the regular transmission of specimens to Calcutta, the
Vice President in Council is of opinion that a regular establishment should
be attached to the Delhi mint, that is to say, that the offices of the Mint
Master and Assay Master must be disjoined and that qualified persons should
be appointed to those situations respectively. The aid of an European foreman
too, will probably be required by the former. Under
the most economical arrangement those objects could not, it is presumed, be
attained without an additional expense of about 20,000 rupees per annum. It
becomes, therefore, a question whether the charge of such an establishment
will not outweigh the advantages attending the proposed arrangements and
whether in a financial view, indeed, it be necessary or expedient to maintain
a separate mint at Delhi on any footing. The
Vice President in Council observes that the net revenue of the Delhi mint is
stated in Mr Egerton’s letter of 28th April 1813, at sicca rupees
20,000 per annum, a sum which would evince that its operations were of some
extent and importance. This
amount would, however, be absorbed by the proposed increase in the
establishment, and if it should therefore appear proper still to maintain the
Delhi mint for the public convenience or profit, it will remain to be
determined whether notwithstanding the advantages of uniformity in the
currency, it may not be advisable to continue to coin at Delhi a distinct
currency for local purposes, of which any slight inaccuracy will be comparatively
of little importance. You
are requested to furnish Government with a report of your sentiments on the
above points. You will of course notice the usual extent of the operations
conducted at the Should it appear to you
necessary independently of financial objects to maintain a mint at Delhi from
consideration towards his majesty the King, you will naturally notice that
circumstance also, although the Vice President in Council presumes a very
limited extent of operations would probably suffice to satisfy the feelings
of His Majesty. Pending
the discussion of the present questions, you will, of course, refrain from
the coinage of Farrukhābād rupees. Metcalf
replied that he did not consider it necessary to operate a mint at Dehlī
at all and proposed that, not only should the new mint not start operation,
but that the existing mint (which was still striking Dehlī rupees)
should also be shut. He goes on to state that a few coins would be required
each year to satisfy the Moghul Emperor (referred to as the King): I do not apprehend that
it is necessary to maintain a mint at In
a subsequent letter he gives figures for the output of the mint: Statement
of the Amount of Coinage Issued from the Dilhee Mint and Duties Received
Thereon from 1st June 1816 to end May 1817, and from 1st
June 1817 to 28th May 1818 inclusive.
From
this it can be seen that very small numbers of mohurs were minted at this
time, with a higher number of rupees. Government agreed with Metcalf’s
assessment and instructed that the new mint should cease before it started
and the machinery should be sent to Farrukhābād. However, the
letter continues: …still causing however
such a number of coins to be annually struck as may be necessary for the
purpose of the satisfaction of the feelings of his Majesty. It
is not clear exactly when the Dehlī mint was closed, although the formal
production of Dehlī rupees ceased in 1818 and most of the staff of the
mint were put out of work, and later paid a small pension [44]. Parts of the silver and gold mint
must have remained open for some years because presentation pieces, or
nazaranas, are known right up until AH 1258 (1842), and the mint must
therefore have been open then. At the latest, it must have been closed when
the Emperor was deported following the Mutiny (1858). There is a brief
discussion concerning the appropriate presentation of nuzaars (presentation pieces) to the Emperor in 1835 [45]. In 1821 the machinery that had been
sent to Dehlī was still lying there, unused and decaying. The following
letter was sent by the Dehlī Resident to Calcutta [46]: I consider it my duty to
report to you that there are several mint implements of apparently excellent
manufacture at present deposited in the go-downs of this mint which will
assuredly never be brought into any kind of use here. The
natives employed in the mint to coin a few hundred rupees once a year to
present to his Majesty on the anniversary of his coronation do not even know
the application or use of the articles to which I allude, and it strikes me
that much of the apparatus requisite to complete the machinery is wanting. The
implements are lying rotting here to no purpose. If sold on account of
Government in this city they would fetch a mere nothing and I should suppose
the things might be very serviceable in some of the regular mints. Perhaps
they might be sent with advantage to The
machinery was eventually sent to Farrukhābād Copper
coins in the name of Muḥammad Akbar II are known for years from 1810 to
1818, although no entries in the records have been found appertaining to the
production of a copper coinage for this period. In 1826 serious consideration was
given to the construction of a new copper mint in Dehlī, to the extent
of planning the cost of manufacture and the establishment required [47]
Establishment
The
establishment of a copper mint was again proposed in 1829 [48] but was finally rejected [49]. Background History [50] Muḥammad
Khān, a Pathan born at Mau-Rashidabad in 1665, was a mercenary
freebooter for much of his early life. His support of the Moghul Emperors,
Farrukh Siyar, who gave him the title of Nawāb, and then of Muḥammad
Shāh, enabled him to create a power-base in the region, which
subsequently became known as Farrukhābād. In so doing, he
established the line of the Bangash Nawābs. Following his support for
Farrukh Siyar in 1714, he was awarded fifty-two villages at a site at which
he determined to build a city named in favour of the Emperor. The fortunes of the Bangash
Nawābs were very unsettled. They constantly faced, or initiated,
aggression from, or against, their neighbours, Rohilkhand and Awadh, or from
Marathas. The defeat of the Marathas by the Durrānīs at Panipat in
1761, temporarily removed one threat, but Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawāb
Wazir of Awadh, took advantage of this and tried to seize
Farrukhābād in 1762. Shujā-ud-Daula was defeated in several
battles by the British and, by 1765, he no longer posed a threat to the
incumbent Bangash Nawāb, Aḥmad Khān, a son of Muḥammad.
However, the Marathas then returned in 1769 and Aḥmad Khān was
sorely pressed to keep them at bay. He died in 1771 and was succeeded by his
son Muẕaffar Jang, who combined with the Nawāb Wazir of Awadh to
expel the Marathas in 1773, only to find that his territory was then
subordinate to that of Awadh. By 1777 the Nawāb Wazir had
agreed that the British should establish a force, known as the temporary
brigade, at Fatehgarh on the outskirts of Farrukhābād. Once this
force was in place, and paid for by the Nawab Wazir, try as he might, he
could not get it removed and the cantonments remained there for many years
(see later for importance to the mint). Muzaffar Jang died in 1796, probably
poisoned by his eldest son. As a result, the title of Nawab devolved to
Muzaffar Jang’s second son, who received an allowance of Rs 50,000 per year,
but all power was given to an older half-brother. When this older brother
tried to reduce his allowance, the young Nawab went to The Bangash Nawabs issued rupees which
became very popular in the region and on which the British eventually based
the rupee that was to be used across
Rupee
of the Bangash Nawabs. Mintname Ahmadnagar Farrukhābād When
Farrukhābād was ceded to the EIC in 1802, it came with a working
mint. That this mint was kept operational is revealed by an entry in the
records detailing the output of the mint at this time [51]:
In
1803, the Acting Agent to the Governor General suggested that the control of
the mint should be overseen by a committee consisting of two people: the
Judge & Magistrate (one person) and the Agent to the Governor General.
This was sanctioned by the Governor General [52]. The poor state of the mint buildings
was also a cause for concern soon after the mint was acquired and the new
mint committee went ahead and spent money (Rs. 485.10) repairing the
buildings as they saw fit before asking for permission to do so. This was
sanctioned by the Bengal Government but with a warning that, in future,
expenditure must be approved before it was incurred [53]. This little exchange gives some
indication of the limited scope of action that the Committee actually had. In February 1805, the
Farrukhābād mint committee wrote to the Bengal Government
requesting that the hammered coinage should be replaced by a milled coinage [54]. The reason they cited for wanting to
make this change was that the hammered process had several imperfections, and
they went on to describe one of these in detail: The defect in question
is found under the head of multa in every monthly account, and arises from the
partial impression of the two figures on the planchet, or piece of metal, and
from the planchet being thrown out of its horizontal position when struck by
the hammer, causing dents and scratches (multa) on the surface of the image.
The allowance for multa not only reduces the amount of public tax (no duty
being levied on one tenth of the bullion, on account of this blemish), but
also affords an opening to shroffs to reject the defaced rupee or receive it
below its intrinsic value, to the great embarrassment of merchants, and loss
and vexation to individuals. The
mint committee went on to state that the implements used to strike the coins
(presumably the dies) required repair after 8,000-10,000 coins had been
produced, and that they produced about 15,000 coins per day. This implies
that they needed to replace dies at the rate of more than one a day. They
went on: We therefore further
request to be furnished with such as are used at the Presidency mint, and
which we conclude are manufactured after the European model, namely 1st
a mold for casting the plates of metal, 2nd a laminating engine
and rollers for giving the plate its uniform and exact thickness, and 3rd
a steel trepan to shape and cut off the planchet at one and the same time. In
the same letter the Farrukhābād rupee was recommended as the coin
that the British should establish as the currency throughout the Ceded and In April 1805 the Governor General
wrote to the mint committee at Farrukhābād informing them that he [55]: …has determined on the
immediate introduction of a new silver and copper currency, of an uniform
weight and standard, into the provinces ceded by the Nawaub Vizier to the
English East India Company, and into the conquered provinces in the Doab and
on the right bank of the river Jumna, including the zillah of Bundlecund, to
be denominated the Lucknow sicca rupee of the 45th sun, struck at
Farrukhābād, corresponding in weight and standard with the rupee at
present struck at Lucknow, in the dominions of the Nawaub Vizier, and thence
denominated the Lucknow rupee, and to select the town of
Farrukhābād to be the place at which a mint shall be established
for striking the new silver and copper coin to be established in the said
provinces. I
am further directed to acquaint you that His Excellency in Council has been
pleased to appoint the Judge and Magistrate of zillah Farrukhābād
for the time being, and the Agent or Acting Agent to the Governor General at
Farrukhābād for the time being, to be a committee for the
superintendence of the business of the mint at that station, and to appoint
Mr Robert Blake to the joint offices of Mint and Assay master for the
immediate conduct of the business of the mint at Farrukhābād,
subject to the authority of the Mint Committee, above mentioned. In
the meantime, the mint committee at Farrukhābād was instructed to
continue producing the then existing type of rupee and to report whether or
not the existing mint building would be suitable for the new coinage. A letter was sent to Robert Blake, who
was then at The mint master at The Lucknow sicca rupee
of the 45th sun is to be of a circular form, and one inch in
diameter, and is to bear the same impression as the nineteenth sun sicca
struck in the Calcutta mint, with an exception to the sun, or year of the
reign of the present King Shah ‘Alam, and to the name of the place at which
the coin is struck. The new coin is to bear the 45th sun and the
words ‘zurb Farrukhābād’ are to be substituted for the words ‘zurb
Moorshedabad’. The edges of the new silver coin are to be milled, and the
dies are to be of the same size as the
coin so that the whole of the impression shall appear upon the surface of it. In
preparing the dies for the new silver coinage in the Ceded and Conquered
Provinces, you will cause a private mark to be put upon all the dies, but in
such a manner as not to be distinguishable by the naked eye, or by persons
unacquainted with it. You are desired to register such private marks in the
records of the mint, in order that you may be enabled to discover any defaced
or defective coin which may be hereafter found in circulation… …The
Governor General in Council understanding that machinery, which you have been
instructed to prepare for the mint which the Government have it in
contemplation to establish at Fort St George, is completed. I am instructed
to desire that you will appropriate as much of that machinery as may be
necessary to the use of the mint at Farrukhābād… …I am further directed to acquaint you
that the Governor General in Council has determined on the introduction of a
new copper coinage in the Conquered and Ceded Provinces, to be also struck in
the mint at Farrukhābād, consisting of pure copper, and
corresponding in form, size and impression with those prescribed for the new
silver coinage intended to be immediately established in the said provinces.
The pie is to be of the same size as the rupee and the half pie of the same
size as the half rupee, increasing in thickness in proportion to the
difference in weight between silver and copper coin. It is not intended that
smaller copper coin shall be struck than a half pie. In preparing specimens
of the new copper coin you will regulate the weight of each pie at 290 grains
troy weight. It is necessary to add that the edges of the new copper coin are
not to be milled, or to have any mark or impression thereon… These
extracts contain several points worthy of further discussion. Firstly, Robert
Blake, the newly appointed mint master at Farrukhābād had at one
time been in charge of the mint at the Patna before its closure in 1796 (see
chapter 5). When that mint closed Blake took on the role of assay master.
This job finished early in 1799 when it was noticed that Blake had obtained
over Rs 3000 more than he should have done when he finished his job as mint
master. He undertook to repay this money but by 1800 he had failed to do this
and it emerged that he had actually invested it in an indigo plantation that
had gone wrong. He was unable to repay the money immediately and was given an
extension until January of the following year (1801). In fact, he managed to
repay the money before this [56]. Subsequently, in 1802, Blake was
asked to go to Bareilly and help with the newly acquired mint at that place
(see above and [57]). This is rather strange when one
considers that, in 1800, the Government had been surprised by the fact that public money should have been
misappropriated by the late assay master, Secondly, it is interesting to note
the link between the creation of the new Farrukhābād mint and the
introduction of machinery at the Thirdly, it is clear that right from
the start of the new coinage, it was considered important that the coins
should contain a secret (or privy) mark. These marks were discussed by
Pridmore [59]. Fourthly, the proposal to issue copper
coins weighing 290 grains: no copper coins of the proposed type have been
identified up to this time (but see below). The Calcutta mint master, H.P.
Forster, was not happy with the proposal, and in June 1805 he replied to the
Governor General that he had prepared specimens of the proposed new coinage
but [60]: Were it permitted me to
offer an opinion on the subject, I would venture to suggest the propriety of
making the coin in question more obviously distinct from the Calcutta sicca
rupees than the mere alteration of the date of the year and place of coinage
render them, which to the bulk of people not acquainted with the Persian
character is no distinction at all, and they will of course be liable to be
imposed upon. At the same time I would with deference recommend that the
inscription on the copper coinage be not the same as that on the silver, as
it furnishes a ready means of imposing on the public by silvering them over
with quicksilver and passing them for rupees and half rupees and, under the
idea that His Excellency will approve of the suggestion, I have likewise
prepared distinct dies for the pice and half pice with an inscription in the
Persian and Nagree characters on one side expressive of their denomination
and value. The reverse remains the same as directed. Pridmore
(Bengal No. 342) recorded a copper pice that might be an example of the
copper coins mentioned by Forster (recorded in this catalogue under No.
8.117).
Copper
pattern prepared by Forster Despite
these forebodings of the mint master, in August 1805 the Governor General
went ahead and published a Resolution in Council that established the new
coins along the format that he had originally proposed, including the
statement [61]: …A copper coin of the forty
fifth sun weighing two hundred and eighty four and a half grains troy and
consisting of pure copper shall be established. This
resolution was an updated version of a resolution originally put together in
1803 and known as Regulation 45. Blake decided that the existing mint
building at Farrukhābād was not suitable for the new coinage and
indeed was not able to provide the quantity of coins needed by the army. He,
therefore, selected a site near to the cantonments to build a temporary mint
to meet the immediate needs of Lord Lake’s army [62]. It is not clear whether this mint
started producing the new coins. More likely this temporary mint continued to
strike the old Farrukhābād rupees until the bullion, which had
already been delivered, was minted. In February 1806 a Colonel Morris
offered to rent or to sell (for Rs. 12000) his property at ‘Futy Ghur’ to
Government for use as a mint and this was accepted [63],[64]. In fact, it is likely that this was
where Blake had established the temporary mint because the records contain an
invoice, from Colonel Morris, for renting the buildings from October 1805 to
May 1806. In the meantime, in February 1805, the
Agent to the Governor General at Bareilly had written to the mint committee
at Farrukhābād asking for the new copper coins, pice and half pice,
to be produced to meet a shortage of copper coins at Bareilly [65]. This was supported by the Bengal
Government: the Honble the Governor
General in Council authorizes you to direct the Mint and Assay Master at
Farrukhābād to coin such quantity of pice and of half and quarter
pice, as you may deem necessary, as a medium of exchange in the Ceded and
Conquered Provinces, after making such enquiries respecting the quantity
required for that purpose as you may judge to be advisable from the Agent to
the Governor General at Bareilly and other local officers. The Acting
Commercial Resident at No
entry pertaining to the quantity of pice coined has been found in the
records, so it is not certain that this ever happened. However, the above
instruction from the Governor General does not seem to leave much room for
the local authorities at Farrukhābād to avoid complying. The report of an investigation by a
Board of Commissioners undertaken in 1807 [66], contains a list of dead stock,
including: 30 pairs of dies as
follows: 28 prs for the new 45 Sn
Rps 14
prs fit for use 14
prs reported unserviceable 2 prs of plain dies for
the half rupee 3 prs of dies for the
copper coinage 12 prs of concave dies 5 prs of ditto for ½ and
¼ rupees 58 prs of plain dies for
forming the planchets 37 spare ditto ditto 4 prs plain dies for ½
rupee 7 prs ditto for ¼ rupee 5 spare ditto ditto This
inventory contains three pairs of dies for the copper coinage, implying that
a copper coinage might well have been undertaken as directed in 1805. If that
was the case, then copper coins with the same design as that of the 45 sun
rupees should exist, although none is currently known. The coin is likely to
have the following characteristics: same size and design as the
Farrukhābād rupees, weight 18.8g or 18.4g depending on which of the
figures, shown above, is taken. A number of “copper-looking” 45 sun
rupees have been seen by the author and were reported in JONS some years ago [67]. One of these coins has a weight of
9.6g (148 grains), which approximates to the proposed weight of a half pice.
However, it is the same diameter as a rupee, which was the size specified for
the pice. The half pice was supposed to be the same size as the half rupee.
Copper
“Farrukhābād Rupee” By
1807 a few problems began to emerge concerning the mint master, Mr Blake. The
first of these was a complaint from the accountant general that no accounts
had been submitted for the operations of the mint [68], to which Blake replied that he had
been too busy building the new mint, which was now ready for operation
(written in March 1807) [69]. The second problem arose from the fact
that Blake had moved into a bungalow on the newly purchased site and had
found a number of items of furniture, which he refused to return to Colonel
Morris [70]. He was ordered to do so but he
claimed that Colonel Morris had said that he could have them. At that point
Government decided that it was a personal matter between Blake and Morris,
who should sort it out themselves. Blake appears to have returned the
furniture. In July of 1807, the Governor General proposed that the position of mint and assay master should be divided, with Mr R Graham being appointed mint master and Mr Blake as assay master [71]. Production of the new 45 sun coins had
clearly begun by July 1807 (and probably sometime before this) because a
letter refers to the fact that they were being issued at a rate below that of
their intrinsic value [72]. This means that the ‘old’
Farrukhābād rupees may have continued to be struck until early in
1807, although mintage figures are only available until the middle of 1805.
Table
showing mintage The
coins themselves would have been the same type as that issued by the Bangash
Nawābs of Farrukhābād, and known dates that fit into the
British period are: 1217/39, 1218/39, 1219/39, 1220/39. Other AH dates that
have been reported by KM (1224/31, 1225/31, 1227/31, 1228/31) do not seem to
fit to the recorded facts given above. Perhaps these coins were issued from a
local mint outside of the area controlled by the British, in imitation of the
Farrukhābād coins? Alternatively, these dates may have been
recorded erroneously? A rupee dated AH 1228, RY 39 has been seen by the
author and perhaps all the reported dates should be RY 39 but, even so, these
dates seems to be anomalous. The
records do contain a list of dates of Farrukhābād rupees collected
for examination [73]: RY: 1, 2, 4, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19,
20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 31, 39.
‘Old’
Farrukhābād rupee dated AH 1217 and issued under British authority
New
Farrukhābād rupee In
August 1807 Mr Graham took on the responsibilities of master of the mint at
Farrukhābād. However, in November he requested leave of absence and
Mr Yeld, who had been mint master at Banāras for many years (see chapter 7), was asked
to move temporarily to Farrukhābād to cover Graham’s absence [74]. A Board of Commissioners had been
examining the running of the new mint at Farrukhābād[75] and they produced their report in
October 1807: The machinery used in
the European process of coinage appears to us to be generally in an
inefficient state at present, and the laminating machines we found could not
be used until the ingots had been prepared for them by the hammer. In
consequence of the defective state of the machinery, the want of skill of the
workmen, and of our entertaining doubts with respect to the practicability of
preparing proper machinery at this place, it appears to us that it would not
be advisable, at present, to attempt to carry on the coinage generally by
means of the laminating and cutting machines, and that no fixed establishment
should therefore be allowed for those machines or for the adjustment of the
planchet. The
melting was reported to us by the Mint and Assay Masters in the first
instance to be very defective and those officers stated that it had been
found impracticable to reduce the metal to a perfect fluid state, but this
difficulty, we are happy to say, has been overcome upon actual trial in our
presence. A difficulty experienced from a want of proper moulds for casting
ingots fit for the laminating machine was also complained of, but it may
also, we think, be easily surmounted in a short time. The
persons at present employed in carrying on the different processes by
machinery appeared to us to be very inexpert, and we should not have supposed
that they could have had any experience whatsoever. Those in particular who
were collected as adjusters had never, we understood, been employed before in
that process. It
would seem that the production of blanks was carried out manually by duraps,
as was the case in many of the other The coinage also carried
on by Daraps appeared to us to be coarse and imperfect. The tools used in
this process are very defective and do not admit of the workmen producing as
good planchets as might be fabricated even by the ordinary process in use
among the natives. The planchets made by
the Daraps, not being circular, and the concave and collar dies as they are
at present used, not having the effect of rendering them so, the milling dies
are likely to be greatly injured in being applied to such planchets, and the
milling is consequently imperfect.. The
process of milling the edge of the coin was to be kept secret: …We suggested to the
Mint Master to apply for new milling dyes, and we recommend that these dyes
be always furnished from the Presidency as they cannot be properly made here
at present, and it is desirable that the construction and use of the milling
machine should not be generally known. Overall
the commissioners did not consider the mint to be well run and requested the
mint and assay masters to undertake a series of trials to determine what
needed to change: There appeared to us to
be a want of order and arrangement throughout the different departments of
the mint. The duties of the several officers and workmen had not been
defined, and some general regulations for the conduct of the business were
evidently wanting. The
actual loss incurred in the processes of refining and milling had not, we
understand, been ascertained, but our orders to the Mint and Assay Masters of
this date have in view to obtain accurate information on this point, as well
as to ascertain the loss likely to be incurred in adjusting the planchets by
the European process... …we
have deemed it necessary to direct the Mint and Assay Masters to carry on
conjointly a series of experiments in person, and we hope that from the
results some judgement may be formed with respect to the measures which it
may be necessary for your Lordship in Council to adopt for regulating the
establishment in future. The
Board of Commissioners returned to the mint in December 1807 but found little
improvement and the Bengal Government agreed with their recommendation that [76]: …no attempt should be
made to introduce the European process of coinage at Farrukhābād
until such arrangements shall have been adopted as may afford a more
satisfactory assurance that it can be introduced with effect In
other words the new Farrukhābād mint appears to have been only
partially mechanised to start with. In December 1808 Mr Yeld ‘surrendered charge of the mint at
Farrukhābād’ [77] presumably to a Mr Donnithorne who
was definitely mint master in 1809. Donnithorne and Blake between them appear
to have been able to improve the functioning of the mint [78]: The mechanical abilities
of both Mr Donnithorne and Mr Blake might we think be advantageously employed
in preparing on the spot most of the articles now supplied from Blake
took the opportunity to ask for some back-pay and his request gives an
interesting insight into the ways that the British in India earned their
livelihoods [79]: I beg leave to submit to
the consideration of the Board my claim to a further remuneration for the
duties performed by me as Mint and Assay Master at Farrukhābād from
Shortly
after the cession I was encouraged by the Marquis Wellesley to come up into
this part of the country to carry into effect the views of Government for the
reformation of the coin in the upper provinces and I in consequence quitted
the indigo pursuit in which I was engaged near Patna, where it is presumable
from the success of others in that quarter I might, had I remained, have
acquired ere this a competent fortune. From
the rainy season of 1802 I remained (with a short exception) until April
1805, at Bareilly in expectation of the post with which I was afterwards
honored, and during the whole of this period I received no pay or emolument
tho’ repeatedly employed by the lieutenant Governor and Board of
Commissioners, and subsequently under the orders of Government by the Agent
to the Governor General, in making assays and reports of the various coins
current in this quarter of India and in preparing the table of rates and in
deputation to investigate and report on the commerce of cumman and Almoah.
The expense incurred in the duties here mentioned was defrayed from my private
funds. He
had received Rs 1500 per month but now asked for Rs 2500. This seems a bit
cheeky given his history of ‘borrowing’ money from the The
output of the mint, in the early years of its operation, is known:
New
machinery, built by Mr Da Costa [80], appears to have been delivered to
the Farrukhābād mint in 1810. Da Costa was responsible for building
and/or erecting machinery, not only at Farrukhābād, but also at
Banāras, Madras and Dehlī [81]. Presumably this was the point at
which the Farrukhābād mint was finally fully mechanised. Once the Farrukhābād rupees
became established, the inevitable counterfeiting began and a letter from the
Board of Commissioners for the Ceded and Conquered Provinces gives a list of
the mints, and their owners, that had
been established to produce debased Farrukhābād rupees [82]. Guarding the mint against theft was
the responsibility of the army, who had to provide Sepoys for the job. This was
obviously not always very pleasant as revealed in a letter from Donnithorne,
who was still the mint master in 1815 when the letter was written: The Commanding Officer
of the station having lately visited the mint, signified his wish that the
guard should at all times be within the wall of the compound instead of
living on the outside, and thereby leaving the charge of the treasure to the
few [Sepoys] on duty. The proposed arrangement is in my opinion a vary
salutary one, and I beg leave to enclose an estimate of the expense which
will be incurred in erecting a building 70 feet long and 14 broad, and
solicit the Boards sanction for the work being immediately commenced on, as
the guard together with arms and accoutrements are exposed to all kinds of
weather. The
expense of Rs 453.4 was approved. In
1816, the Board of Control proposed that the Farrukhābād mint could
usefully be employed in producing copper pice if the proposed weight of the
coin was reduced to that of the Banāras pice [83]: In consequence of the
small quantity of silver which has for some time past been brought to the
Farrukhābād mint by individuals for coinage, we have had it in
contemplation to suggest to your Lordship the expediency of employing that
mint in the coinage of copper pice on account of Government so as to defray
from the profits of such coinage, the establishment, which is necessarily
kept up for the occasional calls of the silver coinage. By sections 43 to 52,
Regulation 45, 1803, establishing a copper coin for these provinces,
individuals are invited to bring copper to the mint for the purpose of its
being manufactured into pice of a specified weight and size, but no
application of this nature appears to have ever been made to the mint by any
individual and a coinage on account of Government at the weight there
specified of 284½ grains would be productive of no profit. On
the contrary it would be found that by throwing into circulation pice of that
weight at the prescribed tale of 32 whole and 64 half pice for a rupee, the
persons taking them would be supplied with a maund of copper at the price of
only rupees 51 and as the market price for copper here is seldom less then
rupees 68, they might be expected to remelt immediately the whole of such
pice for the sake of so large a profit. There
can, at the same time, be no doubt that if the weight of the pice were to be
reduced so as to assimilate more nearly the intrinsic value of the coin with
the market price of the metal, a considerable advantage might accrue to
Government from the coinage. We
accordingly beg leave to recommend that the prescribed weight of the
Farrukhābād pice be reduced from 142¼ grains for the single or half
pice, to 100, at which weight if delivered into circulation at the same tale
of 64 per rupee, the maund of copper would cost the parties taking such pice,
rupees 72½ and no inducement would remain to them for remelting the coin… …
We beg leave to observe that the copper coinage established at Benaras by
Regulation X 1809 is fixed at the same rate which we have here proposed, of
100 grains, and that it appears to have been very extensively introduced into
circulation. In
1817 a decision was taken to extend the production of Farrukhābād
rupees to other mints in the Presidency:[84] Regulation XXVI, 1817. Authorizing the
circulation of Farruckabad rupees coined in either of the mints of Whereas it may from time
to time be found expedient to coin rupees of the weight and standard of the
Farruckabad rupee at the mints of Calcutta or Benaras, it has been deemed
advisable to rescind so much of section 2 of Regulation 45 of 1803 as tends
to limit the coinage of Farruckabad rupees to the mint of Farruckabad and to
direct that the following enactment be henceforth in force. The
silver coin denominated the Farruckabad rupee and of the weight and standard
prescribed by section 2 of Reg. 3 of 1806 struck at the mints of Calcutta,
Farruckabad or Benaras or at any other mint established by order of the
Governor General in Council is hereby declared to be the established legal
silver coin in the Ceded and Conquered Provinces. The
output from the Farrukhābād mint for the preceding few years was
published in 1818 [85]
Following
the third Maratha war, in July 1819 an investigation by the Calcutta mint
committee arrived at the following recommendations [86]: 1st The abolition
of the Benaras rupee 2nd The
limitation of the currency of the Upper Provinces to a rupee of the value of
the present Farruckabad rupee 3rd The
carrying into effect the alteration of the standard of that rupee as already
sanctioned. 4th The discontinuance
of the mint at Farruckabad 5th The
coinage of the new Farruckabad rupee at the Benaras mint and consequent
improvement and extension of that establishment. Should these
arrangements meet with the approbation of Government, we conceive it would be
found advantageous to give them as early effect as possible, as the
difference of standard at present existing and the distant situation to which
bullion is necessarily sent to be coined into Farruckabad rupees, entail much
inconvenience and expense on the remittance of treasure to the Upper
Provinces on public account. Their enforcement is not indispensably connected
with the following propositions, which do not perhaps admit of so early a
decision. 6th The
substitution of the new Farruckabad rupee for the currencies of the newly
acquired territory 7th and the
temporary establishment of a mint in This
is the first mention of the closure of the Farrukhābād mint and
also the first mention of the establishment of a mint at Saugor or Ajmēr
(see relevant sections). At the same time it was proposed that
the silver standard of the Farrukhābād rupee should be changed to that
of the Calcutta sicca rupee [87]. The Bengal Government was keen to
ensure that the Farrukhābād rupees issued from the different mints
could be recognised and issued orders that secret marks should be added to
the coins [88]: It is understood that
the dies recently sent by the Mint Master at Calcutta to the Benaras mint
(being the same that Mr Saunders had himself used) have a distinct private
mark from that borne by the dies in use at the Farruckabad mint. You will be pleased to
instruct Mr Saunders to be careful to preserve the same distinction in all
dies, which he may hereafter furnish to the Mint Masters at Benaras or
Farruckabad respectively, distinguishing also by different marks those which
he may himself eventually hereafter use, or which he may have occasion to
send to the mint at Saugor or elsewhere. This
letter also contained a resolution which made, inter alia, the following points: 1. That the coinage of
the Benaras rupee be discontinued. 2. That the Farruckabad
rupee be declared the legal currency of the 3. That the standard of
the Farruckabad rupee be assimilated to that of the present 4. That the Government
will receive Farruckabad rupees at par with the present Benaras rupees in
payment of the land revenue and in liquidation of all other public demands
and will pay them at the same valuation within the Province of Benaras. 10. That the Farruckabad
mint be continued only during such time as may be found requisite for
effecting the arrangements necessary to the full efficiency of the Benaras
mint. The Farruckabad rupee of the new standard to be in the mean time coined
at both mints with such separate private marks (not discoverable by the naked
eye) as may serve to distinguish the coinage of the several mints. The
standard of the new Farrukhābād rupee was [89]:
In
1820 Mr H.H. Wilson, the Calcutta assay master, was sent to
Farrukhābād to investigate the operation of the mint there [90], and the Calcutta mint committee
reported to Government in April 1821 that everyone agreed that the
Farrukhābād mint should not be kept in operation after the
Banāras mint became fully capable of producing the Farrukhābād
rupee [91]. By 1823 the improvements to the
Banāras mint were complete and consideration was again given to closing
the Farrukhābād mint [92]: We have the honor to
acknowledge the letter of the Secretary to Government in the Territorial Department
dated the 31st ultimo, forwarding to us the report of the
Superintendent of Public Buildings announcing the advanced state of the
Benares mint and calling upon us to give our opinion respecting the
expediency of abolishing the mint at Farruckabad. The
abolition of the mint at Farruckabad was first suggested on general grounds
by the Mint Committee in their letter to Government dated In
our letter to Government of the 3rd April 1821 forwarding the
report of Mr Wilson on the Farruckabad mint, we had occasion to repeat the
same recommendation founded on the continuance of the same circumstances, the
low amount of private coinage and high average of net charges, anticipating
also from the extended powers of the Benares mint when completed, ample means
of effecting the recoinage on public account of such mixed currencies as
still circulated in the Upper Provinces. Although
we had no reason to expect that the views taken by us on these occasions were
inapplicable to more recent occurrences, yet in order to rest our opinion on
secure grounds we have obtained from the Accountant General a statement of
the proceedings of the Farruckabad mint subsequent to the date of our late
communication or for the years 1820/21 to 1822/23. From this it appears that
the average of the individuals’ coinage for the last three years has
continued to be but 18 lacs a year, that in the third of these years it was
less than 18 lacs and that it may be expected to be still less in the current
year, 1823/24, the first four months having coined but 41,000 rupees. The
expenses of the Farruckabad mint have continued to bear much the same
proportion as formerly, and the average net charge of the period under review
is above 51,000 rupees per year. Under
the circumstances therefore we have only to repeat the opinion we have
already expressed and to recommend the abolition of the Farruckabad mint as
appearing to us to be no longer necessary for the accommodation of individual
commerce nor essential to the convenience of Government in any proportion to
the annual expense it entails. The
On
I am directed by the Committee
for superintending the affairs of the mint at this Presidency to request you
will on receipt of this letter stop the operations of the mint under your
charge and pack up and transmit with Captain Presgrave to Saugor such part of
the Farruckabad mint machinery as may appear necessary or useful to him for
the Saugor mint. I am also directed to
inform you that Captain Presgrave has been authorised to select such
artificers as he considers calculated to assist him in the operations of the
Saugor mint. The
Farrukhābād Collector, Mr Newnham, was not happy about this, not
because of the mint, but because of the people who would lose their jobs[94]. He stated that he had had only two
months experience as mint master and: I had no sort of wish to
be involved in the responsibility of closing an old concern and discharging
the hundreds of people who have been connected with an establishment which
was local with the Patan Dynasty at Farruckabad… …The
regular establishment is another subject for your instructions. Until all is
arranged and the stock cleared out many must be retained on their
responsibility. Some are also grown old and infirm in the Company’s employ,
some look for pensions in common [with] invalid servants, and it is not the
usual custom of the British Government to suddenly throw people out of bread.
Perhaps a donation may be extended to all… Some
employees of the Farrukhābād mint were offered the chance to move to
Saugor, where a new mint was being built but most declined. Newnham was asked for a list of people
he considered deserving of a government pension, a list that included people
who had worked there almost since the mint opened. For instance [95]: Bishendass, Darogah,
paid 50 Rs/month, started 1807 for 18 years, aged 70, From 1807 to 1817 he
was employed as a Darogah in the melting department at 35 Rs per month &
from 1818 succeeded Thaskoordass as Darogah. The
people affected by the closure also included a Mr Blake, who appears to have
been Robert Blake’s son [96]. He seems to have been offered a job
at Saugor, but not on terms acceptable to him. However, this does not seem to
have been communicated to Newnham: No intention of your
Committee to employ Mr Blake at Saugor in a situation correspondent to that
which he held at the Farruckabad mint has ever been made known to me. The length of Mr Blake’s
immediate services and respect to his father who was for nearly half a
century in the employ of the Honble Company appears to me to merit due
consideration. As no official discharge has been notified to Mr Blake he must
of course be entitled to his salary, nor can I suppose that Government in any
case permanently entertain a person in a distinct line of employment on any
known or implied acknowledgement that the occupation may be suddenly
withdrawn unless on proof of misconduct. In
fact Blake demanded that several conditions be met before he moved to Saugor,
in particular that he should be given an assistant to work with him. This was
refused and he does not appear to have taken the job at Saugor. These coins were discussed by Barry Tabor in 2008
[97]. According
to this account, the British advanced against …ceded districts were made over to Kirith Singh, successor to Lakinder
Singh, by a treaty dated Thus, the British held Gwalior fort between 1802
and 1806, and one type of rupee with a straight sword has been attributed to
this period. Rupees
appear to have been issued from a mint at Hathras in the name of Shah ‘Alam
II from RY 25 (1783/84) to RY 30 (1788/89). Copper coins may also have been
issued. There
is some indication in the records that this mint may have continued for a
short time after the British acquired control at the end of 1801 [99]: I am directed to
transmit to you the enclosed extracts from the proceeding of Government in
the judicial department, respecting a claim preferred by Rajah Dyaram to
compensation for the loss sustained from the abolition of the mint at Hatras. Although
the Rajah may not possess any legal claim, strictly speaking, to
compensation, yet adverting to the length of time which the mint was
established and to all the circumstances of the case, the Governor General in
Council is disposed to offer a favourable attention to the claim of the Rajah
to compensation for the loss sustained from that cause. You are accordingly
desired to consider in the formation of the ensuing settlement of the Rajah’s
estate, what deduction should be allowed on that account. The coins
issued may have been pice but none is known [100]: …Regarding the copper
coins current in these parts the following are some particulars The pice current at
Hatras are
The Hatras pice are
current only at Hatras, [Surswe], Moorsawn and the villages round about, at
Coel even they are at a discount. Najibabad
was a Rohilla mint until 1774 when the Nawab Wazir of Awadh took the town.
The town passed to the British in 1801 and the mint may have continued
operations until 1805 [101]. This conclusion, reached by Ken Wiggins,
led to an examination of the records to determine if Najibabad did indeed
operate under British control. However no archival evidence has come to light
to support this assumption and, indeed, the evidence that has been found
indicates that the mint was closed before the British took control. The first relevant entry occurs soon
after the British acquired the territories, and is a letter dated …About forty-five years
ago, Nudjub-ul Dowlah coined pice for the first time at Nudjeebabad, out of
copper brought from the hills of Surrungur. These pice, which weighed […]
Maushes, were termed Nudjeeb khannees… …
[Copper formerly used] to be imported from the Seereenagar hills of
Nudjeebabad while the coinage continued at that place but, since the
abolition of the mint, I do not find that any has been brought either thither
or to Barelli. Much
later, in 1833, Prinsep, the assay master of the … 100 of each of the
following rupees to be sent for assay: Nujeebabad Rupees RY 1
to 17 Nujeebabad rupees struck
by Zubita Khan ditto Golam Khan Chundousi rupees The
rupees duly arrived, were assayed and Prinsep made a detailed report to
Government [104] in which, inter alia, he discussed the problem of batta, which was imposed by the shroffs. The British authorities
had always assumed that batta was
an evil practice imposed to swindle the general populus but Prinsep came to
the conclusion that this assumption might have been quite wrong: It has commonly been
urged as one reason for our not noting the date of coinage upon our currency,
that it would be a sure source of exaction to the native money changers, who
would apply a different rate of batta to each different year’s coin as
they were in the habit of doing with the native currencies. Examination,
however, proves in all cases that the shroffs were right in so doing and they
were better able therefore to judge of the value of the currency than
ourselves, who were unsuspicious of the gradual depreciation constantly
taking place in the multifarious coins of Shah Aulum’s reign. The fault was
in the coins themselves, and I have no doubt that the date might be very
safely stamped upon our own rupees without causing any of the dreaded
perplexities of batta, as long as perfect uniformity of standard shall be
preserved in their fabrication, but I may have to recur to this subject on a
future occasion. The
idea of marking coins with their date of issue was not resumed by the British
until many years later with the rupees of the new uniform coinage being dated
1835 and subsequently 1840 and then 1862 right up until 1876. Prinsep went on to discuss the history
of the Najibabad coins: The Nujeebabad mint was
established by Nujeeboodoulah, the Rohilla chief who exercised so powerful a
sway on the fortunes of the last monarchs of There
appears however some mistake in Mr Ravenshaw’s information on this head, as
the subjection of Rohilkhund occurred in 1774 (sun 16 of Shah Aulum). Zabita
Khan did not rise into power until 1783 so that of the present series of
specimens the first years (sun 20 to 24) belong to Nujeeboodoulah and sun 25
and 29 to Zabita Khan – but the Khunjur and Kathar do not appear upon any of
them. The
principal part of the Nujeebabad coins now current, belong to a period
subsequent to the annexation of the Rohilkhund province to the soubah of Oude
and they bear the distinguishing symbol of a [rooce?] muchlee on the obverse
and a crescent on the reverse with the usual Shah Aulum distick. Prinsep
produced a table of all the coins that he assayed and summarised the results
as follows: As before remarked there
is a gradual deterioration in the value of the Nujeebabad rupees throughout
the table, but for convenience they will admit of a division into three
principal qualities. Down
to the 29th sun the weight is about 173 grains, the regulation
weight of the old Farruckabad or From
the 30th to the 40th sun, the quality ranged a little on
either side of 6 better in assay and 170 grains in weight. The average value
may be called 97 Fd Rs 6as for 100 Nujeebabad rupees. It is worthwhile to
notice that the Delhi rupees 38th sun inserted in the table
adopted by Government in its resolution before alluded to, has the same value
(97..3) and it is probable that the Shah Aulum coins struck at the several
mints immediately subject to the Delhi government of the day, could be all
more easily assimilated in value by reference to their dates than to the
places of their fabrication, as will be noticed presently in regard to the
Chundousee rupee. The
third division of Nujeebabad rupees comprehends the years 41, 42 & 43
when the operations of this mint were suspended. By far the larger portion
date in the year 42 – the average assay of them is 1 dwt better, the weight
169 grains and the value only 94/8 Farruckabad rupees per cent. It
is worth noting that Prinsep recorded that the operations of the Najibabad
mint were suspended in RY 43 of Shah ‘Alam (i.e. 1800/01) before the
annexation by the British. This of course, leaves the question of where were
the rupees bearing later dates produced? A number of places have been
suggested as a possible candidates but no conclusion has yet been reached [105].
Najībābād
rupee AH 1221, RY 46 Prinsep
also goes on to discuss a rupee that he named the Chundousee rupee: The Chundousee rupee, of
which I have only received one specimen, of the 29th sun, from the
Board, agrees in every respect (except the place of its fabrication) with the
Nujeebabad rupee of the same date. It bears the device of the [rooce?]
muchlee and a flower in lieu of the moon. The town of The
identity of this ‘Chundousee’ rupee is not known, although Prinsep does
identify it as RY 29 with a flower instead of a moon symbol. This presents an
opportunity for further research. In conclusion, no coins appear to have
been produced at Najībābād under the control of the British
EIC. (However, see Mahapatra
Manoranj) Sahāranpūr
was a Moghul mint and, later, was controlled by the Rohillas. It was taken by
the Marathas in 1788 and ruled by a number of governors appointed by Sindhia
until 1803 when the area was ceded to the British EIC. The mint continued to
operate for the next two years and appears to have been shut down in 1805/6 [106]. This
is confirmed by an entry in the records of the EIC dated I have the honor to
acknowledge the receipt of your letter under date the 24th ultimo
instructing me to transmit to the Mint Master at Farrukhābād the
dies and other implements of the mints of this district. I
beg in reply to state that when the mints under my charge were abolished by
order of Government, I did not consider that the dies might be afterwards
required, and I ordered them to be broken up. I shall acquaint the Mint
Master at Farrukhābād with the circumstance, and should it be
necessary, shall furnish him with dies similar to those which I have
inadvertently destroyed. The
earliest dates for EIC coins would be AH 1218, RY45, but no way of
distinguishing those coins struck under Maratha control from those of the EIC
is known. The coins in the catalogue presented below, are mainly taken from
Maheshwari and Wiggins, and 19th Century Krause & Mishler, but
more work is required to create a really definitive list of these coins. There are a number of varieties of the
rupees, particularly those dated 1218/45, differing in the symbols on both
obverse and reverse and it is likely that coins dated 1219 and 1220 will also
occur in different varieties. The
symbol next to the RY on the reverse is most often the most visible of these
symbols, and the present catalogue records varieties of this symbol.
Sahāranpūr
rupee, AH 1220, RY 47 A
rupee is recorded with the date AH1220 RY 49 (KM South The
First British Issues from the Saugor Mint When
the British acquired Saugor in 1818, they found a working mint, with a full
work-force, that had been in operation for many years, having been
established in 1782/83 (Sambat 1839), although some authorities give 1779,
based on Prinsep. As Maheshwari and Wiggins [108] have pointed out, Prinsep seems to
have made a mistake about this and actually gave the date as 1782 as well as
1779. The IOR records contain an entry
showing the mint output for several years prior to the British takeover [109].
As
can be seen from the table above, mintage in the last few years of Maratha
rule was very low but the same entry reveals that in the eight months before
the British took over, the output increased to 163,167, presumably as a
result of the war and the need for cash to pay the troops. The same entry
then shows the mint output for the first few years of British rule (see
below). The coin produced at Saugor was called
the Saugor Balashahi and was said to contain ’80 ruttees of silver and 10 ruttees of alloy’ [110]. The source of the silver was also
given: Of about 800,000 rupees
coined since the commencement of the British administration, it is calculated
that 350,000 rupees have been coined from dollars brought from Calcutta via
Benares and melted down here, 50,000 rupees from crude bullion brought from
the same direction, 200,000 from Serenuggur rupees melted down, 100,000 from
Nagpur rupees and 100,000 from various other rupees in circulation in the
district.
Output
of the Saugor mint from March 1818 to May 1819 Rupees
from many other mints in the area were also in circulation: (Nagpoor, Serenuggur, Jalound, Seronge, Rathgurh,
Bhilsah and Gurrah Kotah rupees) and
the other local mints were given as: …Rathgurh, Bhilsah,
Bhopal, Seronge, Jhansi, Tirhee, Serenuggur, Punnah, Chutterpore, Eisagurh,
and Gurrah Kotah, and the rupees of the under mentioned places mix sufficiently
into the general circulation to entitle them to equal consideration in their
effect on the currency. Nagpore, Chandah, Sohagepore, Sudhourah, Jalound and
Oojain. All
of these rupees were of lower quality than the Saugor rupee and this caused
some concern to the authorities, who quickly decided that they should
introduce the Farrukhābād or Banāras rupee into the newly
acquired territories. This, they decided, would require the establishment of
a new mint but where should this be sited? At least three options were
considered, Saugor, Jubulpur and Hussangabad (see below for further
discussion). Amongst the earliest entries in the
records referring to the Saugor mint is a discussion of the salaries paid to
the mint employees. At the time that the mint was taken over by the British,
the salaries were based on the number of coins produced by the mint. Since
the mint output had increased, the salaries had also increased and Mr Maddock
(Assistant to the Agent to the Governor General) suggested that the employees
should be paid a fixed salary in future. After some discussion this was
agreed [111]. The mint establishment was reported
to be: One Darogah, one assayer,
two weighers, one engraver, two melters, two stampers, and twenty five
smiths. In
addition: 1
Jemadar and 7 Sebaudars at a monthly salary of 25 rupees per mensum are kept
up for the protection of the mint At
the same time, Mr Maddock noted that: I take the opportunity
of noticing a complaint which has been more than once preferred to me by the
Darogah. He says that the coinage, greatly increased as it is, would be half
again as expensive, but that a mint [that] is working at Gurrah Kotah has imitated
the dye of the Saugor rupee and that half as much specie as is monthly coined
at Saugor is issued with the same impression at Gurrah Kotah, but being
somewhat inferior to the Saugor standard serves to depreciate in character
the Saugor currency and from its close resemblance to the rupee of the mint,
is productive of much confusion in all mercantile transactions. He requests
that the abuse may be rectified. There
is, therefore, no doubt that the Saugor mint was kept in operation and that
it falls into the category of a transitional mint, although, by 1819, the
output had begun to tail off again. It is also clear that the Saugor rupees
were extensively copied, albeit crudely, in a mint at Gurrah Kotah (see below
for further discussion). The coins produced during this time
must have been those showing RY 55 of which there are two types recorded by
Maheshwari & Wiggins and a quarter rupee is known [112] (see Cat. No. 8.134 to 8.136). Crude
examples of these were presumably the output of the Gurrah Kotah mint.
The
Saugor Balashahi An
entry in the records of 1825 contains the following statement [113]: …an application has been
made to me by one or two of the head shroffs to permit the old mint to remain
open till the coinage of the new mint has come into full play. To this
application I was led to give a discouraging reply. This
reveals that the old mint at Saugor remained operational nearly until the new
mint was opened in 1825 and this is further confirmed by a quote from
Presgrave (eventually mint master of the new Saugor mint) who stated in 1833 [114]: …It does not at first
sight appear why the prices of bullion and foreign coins, whose intrinsic
values are perfectly known, should thus vary in the Market as compared with
the coinage of the Honorable Company but this fluctuation, it is known, does
exist and may be exemplified in the Balashy rupee, formerly the Mahratta
coinage of this city and continued under the Honorable Company’s Government
until the opening of the present Saugor mint. The Balashy rupee has
been for many years the current coin of this part of the Saugor and Nerbudda
territories. The natives therefore have been long accustomed and still
continue with few exceptions to make it the medium of all their transactions.
It is inferior to the Farruckabad rupee. The difference in intrinsic value
may be taken at 10 per cent. It generally however passes for more than its
assay value. Sometimes the difference is not more than 4½ or 5 per cent. At
others, as during the collection of land revenues, it falls, or rather, the
Farruckabad rupee becoming more in demand rises consequently in premium to a
difference of 12½ or 13 per cent. In
addition to the silver coins, there are copper coins known dated RY 55 [115]. No entry has been found in the records
referring to the issue of copper coins, but it seems likely that these were
issued during the British period together with the silver coins. Photos of
two types are shown below, but whether these were the type issued by the
British is not known
Copper
pice
Rupee
dated 1819 This
coin was first published by Prashant Kulkarni [116] and the present information should be
read in combination with his paper. Maddock
reported in June 1819 [117]: The Darogah of the mint had
frequently complained to me that the Saugor rupee was imitated by that coined
at Gurrah Kotah and that this was done so much from system that if any slight
alteration was made in the device of the Saugor rupee it was certain to be
copied in a few days at the Gurrah Kotah mint. The rupee which was coined
there, he stated, was inferior in value to the Saugor one, and therefore as
it was almost impossible to distinguish between them, the credit of the
Saugor mint, and the value of its coinage, were injuriously affected by this
imitation. On
my questioning him regarding the inferiority of the rupees coined by him in
the present year, to those of older date, he urged in excuse that he could
not be answerable for all rupees that were circulated as Saugor ones, for
that the Gurrah Kotah rupees passed universally for Saugor rupees, and that
it was often difficult even to persons skilled in the examination of money to
distinguish them. He ended by desiring that some additional inscription might
be made in the dye in characters that would not be understood by the Gurrah
Kotah people, and that unless something of this kind were done, he could not
be responsible for the Saugor coinage. As
I remained in doubt whether this exercise was well grounded or whether the
coinage was really deteriorated, I immediately procured 50 rupees coined that
morning from the mint, and sent them to Mr Newnham to request he would
procure them to be assayed. He forwarded them to the Accountant General
conceiving that the point would be best ascertained in I
thought it impossible to allow the operations of the mint to go on, while the
Darogah disavowed his own responsibility and that it was necessary either to
shut up the mint or comply with his request respecting an additional inscription.
I was told that it would be likely to alarm and distress the shroffs if the
mint was closed. I therefore gave up that idea and directed to be inserted on
the rupee in very small characters on one side the word “Saugor” in English
and the year of our Lord on the reverse. I at the same time requested Captain
Stewart to procure directions to be sent to Gurrah Kotah to prevent any
further attempts at imitation. Although there are several objections to be
made to an innovation in the appearance of the coin, they were perhaps less
than what might have been urged against shutting up the mint, and what I have
done on the occasion will, I trust, be approved by His Lordship. I am of
opinion however that a mint such as Saugor, the superintendence of which is in
the hands of a native officer, can be expected to show a proper degree of
regularity under this Government. Formerly the whole business of coining was
introduced between the shroffs and the Darogah, and the Government scarcely
interfered in their transactions. The Darogah and all his establishment were
paid a percentage on the coinage and could not be called the servants of
Government. Now they receive regular salaries, and though their
responsibility is not diminished, they feel much less interest in their own
operations than formerly. Were
it not that the Gurrah Kotah rupees would continue to pass for Saugor ones,
and that a deteriorated coin would thus be forced into circulation, I should
consider it advantageous to stop the present coining at Saugor, whether a
mint on an amended principle may be established here or not. Indeed if the
examination of the rupees that have been sent down to Calcutta proves them to
be inferior to the former standard of the mint, I shall be obliged to have
recourse to that measure and probably to dismiss from office the greater part
of the persons employed in the establishment. Thus,
it is clear that we can assign the very rare coins with the word Saugor and
the date 1819, to this event. The word Saugor is very crudely written. The New
Mint at Saugor In
1819, the …7th and the
temporary establishment of a mint in The
Bengal Government approved most of these recommendations and in 1820
confirmed the plan to build a new mint at Saugor [119]. At the same time they stipulated
that this new mint should be capable of producing between 20,000 and 25,000
rupees per day and that Captain Presgrave of the 26th Native
Infantry should become the assay master on an allowance of 600 rupees per
month (in addition to his military pay). Henceforth, Presgrave was the key
driving force in establishing and operating the new Saugor mint. His first
job was to build the necessary machinery and he was sent to the Having got the machinery under way,
Presgrave next turned his attention to the mint building itself. He considered
the existing mint building at Saugor to be totally unfit for the purpose and
presented his own plans for a new building. Although the plan itself is not
contained in the records, Presgrave wrote a very full description that gives
a good idea of what the mint would have been like [122]: References to the plan
of the Saugor mint The
chimnies a. a. a. a. of the melting room furnaces are to be independent of
the walls of the rooms, though placed close to them. They are to be 5 feet
square at the bottom and to be carried up tapering to a height of 32 feet.
The spaces for the flues to be one foot square within and of the same area
from the bottom to the top. An arched opening one foot square to be left in
three sides of each chimney at the distance of four feet from the ground,
that thereafter three furnaces may be attached to each chimney. The
chimnies b. b. and bases for the annealing furnaces, to be built as in the
plan up to the level of the floor of the rolling mill rooms, and the two
hollow spaces to be filled in with rubble. On these will afterwards be built
the furnaces. The chimnies are from this floor to be carried up tapering to
the height of 25 feet, the flues to be one foot square within and of the same
area throughout. An arched hole of 1 foot square to be left in the side
(towards the room) of each chimney at the height of 30 inches from the floor.
The space c. between the base of the furnaces to be arched over, leaving an
open communication between the capstan rooms below, though perfectly level
with the floors of the laminating rooms above. The beams to be laid exactly
as in the plan of the floor. No other distance will answer for the admission
of the vertical wheels or the machinery they are to receive. The floor to be
boarded with stout planks. The doorways d. d. d. d. towards the mint yard and
outer veranda, to have iron bars fixed in them, that the men who work at the
capstan may have a free circulation of air though, at the same time, they can
have no thoroughfare into the mint, the entrance to the capstan rooms being
by the outer doors e. e. e. e. The door f. to be the only communication from
the laminating rooms (above) to the mint by the means of stairs of either
wood or masonry. The
walls of the (lower or) capstan rooms to be built up 9 feet, when the beams
(which are one foot thick) are to be placed on the walls. The walls of the
laminating rooms (above) to be 12 feet high. No wall or partition to be built
between the laminating rooms, the whole to be open from one end to the other,
which will give a space of 62 feet by 30 for the accommodation of the rolling
mills, annealing furnaces, cutting presses and shear blocks. All
the spaces towards the veranda and marked across with a single line, to be
arched over as doorways but they are afterwards to be closed up with masonry.
The advantage of this will be that they may be opened at any future period,
should circumstances require it, without injury to the buildings. It may be
found advantageous to fill them up with open work for the purposes of
ventilation. All
the doorways to the interior of the mint and those not marked across with a
single line should have strong doorways and doors. The
outer veranda to consist of nicely squared posts with a strong plate of
timber on their tops to support the burgahs on which the tiles are to be
laid. The
burgahs to be placed so close that a large square flat tile (generally 1 foot
square) may reach from the centre of one to that of the other. Two layers of
tiles set in good line to form the roof of these verandas, which are to be
enclosed between the posts with strong wooden lattice or rail work, and to be
afterwards divided off with kutchha brick partitions into offices or store
rooms as necessity may suggest. None
of the floors to be made of pucka work excepting those of the two wings in
the front of the building, Viz Mint Master’s and Assay Master’s offices. Presgrave
estimated that the cost of this would be about Rs 25,000, and with some
modifications, notably to strengthen the building, this plan was accepted.
The building was proposed to be sited at: a spot near where the
old and new sheer Mow roads cross each other, about a mile to the south of Mr
Maddock’s house’ [123] Things
started to become a little more difficult after this. First of all the Benares
mint found that it desperately needed new laminating machines and asked if
they could appropriate the machinery that had just been built for the Saugor
mint. This was authorised and further machinery had to be built for Saugor.
This seems to have been undertaken by another company called Jessop & Co
because they informed the Calcutta mint committee in 1821 that the machinery
had been ready for some time and requested that it should be moved to the
mint [124]. The second delay was caused by the
length of time it took to build the mint building itself. In view of these delays Presgrave, in
1821, was assigned to the vacant position of assay master at the
Farrukhābād mint [125] and he asked if he could take a
number of articles prepared for use at Saugor, with him, by boat, to his new
job [126]. These items were listed as: 2 large assay furnaces 50 Assay beam and scales Glazed box for scales Two cases for assays Two iron trays for assays Anvil, tongs, pokers etc One new cutting machine One milling table Cupel moulds At
last, in 1824 the Collector of Farrukhābād, who was in charge of
the mint at that time, was ordered to shut the mint at Farrukhābād
and to let Presgrave choose whatever machinery he needed to take with him to
Saugor [127]. The
new mint at Saugor opened in 1825 with the following establishment [128]:
The
coins produced were Farrukhābād rupees that can be distinguished
from those produced at the other mints ( Originally, Presgrave had been
appointed to the position of assay master at the Saugor mint, and the agent
to the Governor General was to be the mint master. However, when Presgrave
eventually arrived he found himself both mint master and assay master mainly
because no one else knew anything about the operation of the mint [129]. In
1826 the production of copper pice at the Saugor mint was approved. The first
copper coins may have been the rather crude ‘Ek Pai Sikka’ coins first described by Kulkarni [130]:
“ek
pai sikka” pice The
coins have on the obverse a Persian inscription sanah julūs 45 shāh ‘ālam bādshāh
with a trisul in the sīn of julūs. On the reverse is the
legend ek pai sa (or sata) masa
(=This coin weighs seven mashes). Later copper pice were struck with
much greater skill (see below). An entry in the records dated 1833
gives the output of copper from the various Bengal Presidency mints,
including Saugor [131]:
Number
of pice produced in rupee value Closure
of the Saugor Mint In
anticipation of the introduction of the steam-driven mint in Calcutta, in
1828 the Bengal Government issued a resolution that the Saugor mint should be
abolished [132]: Resolved the mint of
Saugor be abolished and that the establishment attached to it be discharged. Ordered
that the Agent to the Governor General in the Saugor and Nerbudda territories
be directed to remit to the Benaras mint any bullion or uncurrent coin which
may be in balance in the Saugor mint, and to send to Benaras such part of the
machinery as, on communication with the Mint Master at that place, it may
appear to be useful to transfer. Mr
Maddock will at the same time be instructed to report in what manner it may
appear to him expedient to dispose of the buildings and such part of the machinery
and stores belonging to the Saugor mint as cannot be advantageously
transferred to Ordered
also that the above resolution be communicated to the accountant General that
he may submit to Government any observations or suggestions relative to the
business of the treasuries in the Saugor and Nerbudda territories which it
may appear necessary or useful to submit with reference to the abolition of
the mint. but
this closure was postponed soon afterwards [133]. An interesting problem arose a little later
in 1828 when Presgrave was promoted to the rank of major. It appears that the
regulations did not allow anyone above the rank of captain to be employed in
the mint, but since nobody else could be found to replace Presgrave and since
the mint was on the point of being closed, the Governor General passed a
special resolution to allow him to continue in the job [134]. The authorities then became worried
about what would happen if he was promoted further [135]: …With respect to the
prospect of Major Presgrave’s promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel,
the Vice President in Council deems it unnecessary to anticipate what may be
determined on that occasion. In
1830 the mint committee again agreed that the mint could be closed and at the
same time the output of the mint, both on behalf of Government and on behalf
of individuals, was published [136].
Statement
of coinage and charges from 1825/26 to 1829/30 of the Saugor mint This
was followed in 1831 by an instruction to the Agent to the Governor General
in the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories to close the mint [137] but again this was overturned and it
was agreed that the mint should stay open until Impact
of The
activities and problems of the Nagpur mint have been investigated in some
detail by Kulkarni [141], and entries in the records of the
EIC held in the British Library also refer to the problems that the
authorities were having with the poor quality of the rupees produced at
Nagpur. This was all the more annoying for them because the Coins
Produced at the new Saugor mint The
only silver coin that was recorded by Pridmore was the rupee denomination. However,
in 1831, Presgrave requested that further dies should be sent from Calcutta
for ‘rupees, four annas and eight anna
pieces’, a request that he repeated later in the year [145]. This appears to show that half and
quarter rupees were struck at Saugor, although none have been identified.
Farrukhābād rupee produced at Saugor The earliest copper coins issued from the new
mint appear to be the rather crude type described above, although these may
have been issued from the old mint. Later issues gradually improved in
quality until the last issues, which are of such high quality that Pridmore
considers that the dies must have been produced at I have the honor to
acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 23rd April and for the
information of the Mint Committee to inform you that of the five specimens of
pice only one (No. 4) is of the coinage of the Saugor Mint. The remaining
are, three of the
The above pice I have
returned with this letter I have enclosed three
specimens of the copper coinage of Saugor Viz
The pice bear no private
mark but are known and easily recognized by their general appearance. All
Saugor pice bear the sun 45. The same is borne by the Farrukhābād
rupees, whilst all the pice coined at It
may not be out of place here to state that a most extensive and barefacedly
open manufacture of almost all kinds of copper pice has been carried on for
the last 20 years or more at Nagoud, a town in the Rewah country, also in
various other villages in that neighbourhood and in Boondilkhund. In
consequence of the appearance of base pice intended for circulation as Saugor
Mint pice, I was not unsuccessful in discovering four shops (at Nagoud) and
several coiners, some of whose dies were seized. The
profession of the proprietors of these shops is to coin ‘Bissennaut’ pice’,
that is Rewah pice which they did by authority of the Raja. However, under
this blind they have carried on for years a far more lucrative manufacture,
that of forging all kinds of pice. This manufacture is not limited to the
town and neighbourhood of Nagoud, although the term Nagoudia is applied to
all spurious coins whether gold, silver or copper in this part of India. The
name arises from the fame of the particular place for the manufacture of base
coin. So
long as the petty Rajahs of the surrounding states are permitted to have
mints and strike their own coin, encouragement will be afforded to the
fabrication of base money. The
system, amongst the petty Rajahs, is to have an enclosed piece of ground
containing houses for the accomodation of coiners. Within this enclosure,
any, and as many, people who will pay two rupees a month for every anvil they
employ, may live and work at making pice for any merchant who may bring
copper and pay them for their labour, an understanding existing between the
Rajah (who does not trouble himself about what is coined) and the coiners,
that if any of the latter are traced out as forgers and application is made
for them by the British authorities, the Rajah will not protect but deliver
them up. At the same time he will himself offer them no molestation or
hinderance, they, with their risk before them, taking their own precautionary
measures to avoid detection by strangers. In this way they coin for merchants
the Rajah’s pice openly and in the day, whilst the fabrication of pice
requiring circumspection is carried on away from public observation and
during the night. I
beg to enclose specimens of some of the forgeries that have been practiced
upon the From the information contained above, Pridmore
identified three varieties which can be distinguished by the symbol in the sīn of julūs on the
obverse (see Cat. Nos. 8.146 to 8.148).
When
the British acquired the new territories in 1818, as well as Saugor, mints
were operating at Sohagpur and Jubalpur. The mint at Jubulpur was closed
immediately and no coins appear to have been issued whilst the mint was under
their control. However the mint at Sohagpur continued to function for a time
and a small number of coins were issued during this period: I have the honor to
acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 26th December and to
subjoin such replies as I am able to furnish to the queries contained in it. 1st.
There is at present no mint in the districts under my superintendence. There
were formerly two, Viz. one at Jubbulpoor and the other at Sohagpoor in the
Duchunteer or Southern Valley of the Nerbudda. The mint at Jubbulpoor was
suppressed immediately after the transfer of the district to the British
Government; that at Sohagpoor was suppressed by me some months ago. 2nd.
The coin which was struck at the Sohagpur mint is denominated the Sohagpoor
rupee. Its gross weight and fineness is said to vary, but I could not
understand the explanations which I received on this point. The coin is an
exceedingly debased one, and the establishment of the mint appears to have
been on a most objectionable footing in every respect… 4th
& 5th. I subjoin also a statement of the monthly coinage at
the Sohagpur mint during six months of the present Mahratta year of account
commencing with the first Shaboon, corresponding with
10th.
The Sohagpur rupee is current in the Duchunteer and in the The
coins issued from the Sohagpur mint were probably rupees of the type
illustrated in the catalogue, two specimens of which are in the British
Museum, and have been labelled by Prinsep as issuing from the Sohagpur mint. |
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8.117
8.105
8.129
8.134
8.139
8.138
8.142
