Privy Marks on Sūrat Style Coins – Silver

A number of different privy marks occur on the gold and silver Sūrat style coins issued from the Surat and Bombay mints. Pridmore has undertaken a study of these marks and arrived at a proposed assignment of date for them. He was only able to confirm one of these (for the 1802 gold coinage) from literature sources and the rest remain a matter of his deduction, which he considered required further research (See Pridmore).

 

Privy 1

Privy 5

Privy 8

Privy 9

Privy Mark 1 (for Sūrat Mint)

Privy Mark 6

Privy Mark 7

Privy Mark 8

Privy Mark 9

 

1800-1824

1825

1825-1831

?

 

Pridmore suggests that there may have been an earlier mark like the crescent on the gold coins.

In 1825 the mint contractors and the fineness of the coins was changed.

 

Pridmore believed that a mint other than Bombay or Surat used this mark. He suggested Poona as a possibility, but the rupees struck at that mint are of a different type (see Poona mint). I’m not really sure why he thought this. It seems more likely that this is a privy mark of Bombay indicating a different date or mint contractor.