[1] Bengal
Consultations. IOT P/162/86, June 1835, No 40
Resolution passed by the Supreme Council of India on 27th May 1835
It has been determined by the Governor General of India in
Council to establish one uniform rupee corresponding in value, weight and
standard with the present Farruckhabad, Madras and Bombay rupee, but of a new
device, and to declare and make the same current in all the Presidencies and
possessions of the British nation in India.
It will be necessary as heretofore to provide by
legislative enactment for the issuing of new coins and to regulate by law their
weight and device and, in respect of the new rupee, to fix the rate at which it
shall be paid and received in discharge of sums calculated in any of the
existing legal currencies: but in regard to all other matters relating to the
coining of money and the establishing or removing of mints it is proper that
the direction be vested in the Governor General of India in Council in his
executive capacity.
The following draft of an act has been prepared to give
effect to the purposes above mentioned
Be it enacted that the undermentioned silver coins only shall
henceforth be issued from the mints within the territories of the East India
Company.
A rupee to be denominated The Company’s Rupee of the weight
of 180 grains troy and of the following standards viz.
11/12 or 165 grains of pure silver
1/12 or 15 grains of alloy
A half rupee of proportionate weight, and of the same
standard
A quarter rupee of ditto
A double rupee of ditto
These coins shall bear on the obverse the head and name of
the reigning sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and
on the reverse the designation of the coin in English and Persian and the words
‘East India Company’ in English, with such other embellishments as shall from
time to time be approved and ordered by the Governor General in Council.
And be it enacted that the Company’s rupee, half rupee and
double rupee shall be legal tender in satisfaction of all engagements, without
the demand of any batta for warage, provided the coins have not been clipped.
Filed, or defaced otherwise than by use, and the said rupee shall be received
as equivalent to the Bombay, Madras, Farruckhabad and Sonat rupees and to
fifteen sixteenths of the Calcutta sicca rupee, and the half and double rupees
shall respectively also be received as equivalent to the half and double of the
above mentioned Bombay, Madras, Farruckhabad and Sonat rupees, and to the half
and double of the fifteen sixteenths of the Calcutta sicca rupee, but the
Company’s quarter rupee shall be legal tender only in payment of the fraction
of a rupee provided that, if in any contract it be specially stipulated that if
discharged at Madras or at Bombay or in the Agra Presidency, payment shall be
made in the rupees now current in these Presidencies respectively at a
different rate from that above declared to be the relative intrinsic value
thereof with reference to the Calcutta sicca rupee, then, and in all such
cases, the contract shall be satisfied when discharged in any of the said
Presidencies by payment there of an equivalent amount of rupees, half rupees
and double rupees, authorized to be coined by this act, for the Farruckhabad,
Madras or Bombay rupees so specially stipulated.
And be it enacted that the undermentioned gold coins only
shall henceforth be coined in the mints of British India
A gold mohur or fifteen rupee piece of the weight of 180
grains troy and of the following standard viz.
11/12 or 165 grains of pure gold
1/12 or 15 grains of alloy
A five rupee piece equal to a third of a gold mohur of
proportionate weight, and of the same standard
A ten rupee piece equal to two thirds of a gold mohur, of
ditto
A thirty rupee piece or double gold mohur, of ditto
These coins shall bear on the obverse the head and name of
the reigning sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and
on the reverse the designation of the coin in English and Persian and the words
‘East India Company’ in English, with such other embellishment as shall from
time to time be approved and ordered by the Governor General in Council.
No gold coin shall henceforth be a legal tender of payment
in any of the territories of the East India Company.
And be it enacted that it shall be competent to the
Governor General in Council in his executive capacity to direct the coining and
issuing of all coins, coined and issued under the authority of this act, and to
establish, regulate and remove mints, any law hitherto in force notwithstanding
Finis
Directions have already been given to
the Calcutta Mint Committee and communications have been addressed to the
Governments of Madras, Bombay and Agra on the subjects of the dimensions, form
and device of the new rupee.
It will measure in diameter one inch and
two tenths of an inch or one tenth of a foot English. It will be milled round
the edge, and the words ‘William IIII King’ will be inscribed on the obverse
with the head of His Majesty. The words ‘East India Company’ in English will be
inscribed on the reverse of the coin, with its designation in English and
Persian as described in the Act: and this side of the rupee will be ornamented
with the representation of a lotus flower and a myrtle wreath. The half,
quarter and double rupees will have the same device and embellishment, and the
diameter and thickness of these pieces shall bear the same proportion to each
other that they will in the rupee. The Calcutta Mint Committee will be desired
to prepare specimens of each coin for the final approval of the Governor
General in Council and for transmission to the Governments of the above
mentioned Presidencies and to the Honorable the Court of Directors.
Preparation must be made at the mints of
Government for the coinage of the new gold pieces mentioned in the preceding
draft of the Act.
The Governor General in Council resolves
that the gold mohur or fifteen rupee piece shall measure one inch in diameter,
and that the diameter and thickness of the other gold pieces coined under the
authority of the above Act shall bear the same proportion to each other that
they will in the gold mohur or fifteen rupee piece.
The gold pieces to be hereafter coined
will circulate at whatever rate of value relatively to the legal silver
currency of the country they may bear to that currency. The proposed law will
not give to them the character of a legal tender of payment calculated in any
other coin. The Governor General in Council will from time to time fix the rate
by Proclamation in the Calcutta Gazette at which they shall be received and
issued at the public treasuries in lieu of the legal silver currencies of
British India. Until further notice that rate will be as the names of the
tokens denote. The gold mohur for fifteen rupees, the five rupee piece for five
rupees, the ten rupee piece for rupees and the thirty rupee for thirty rupees.
The gold and silver bullion of
individuals will be received for coinage at the Government mints as heretofore
subject to seignorage, and also to the refining charges if the bullion be worse
than the prescribed standards which are authorized at the respective mints.
In order to ensure perfect uniformity in
the devices of the new gold and silver coins, the matrix dies for the coinage
of all the mints of the British Government of India shall be furnished from the
Calcutta mint.
The rupee described in the foregoing
draft of Act shall be made the rupee of account in all revenue transactions and
all public offices from such date as shall be hereafter fixed, due notice being
given thereof by the Accountant General.
The privilege which the holders of
promissory notes of the Government now enjoy of receiving the interest due and
accruing thereon at certain treasuries in the interior, under arrangements made
for their convenience in this respect, will be continued at the option of
Government to persons choosing to avail themselves of that indulgence, on such
terms as shall compensate Government for exchange and remittance charges. The
Accountant General will be required to report the amount of debt the interest
of which under the present arrangements is paid in the provinces.
[2] Bengal Consultations. IOR P/162/87, May
1836, No 27,
Letter to the Mint Committee from
Government, dated 11th May 1836.
I am directed by the Right Honorable the
Governor General in Council to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated the
23rd ultimo with its several enclosures and to inform you in reply
that the subjects discussed therein and the recommendations of the committee
have been the subject of His Lordship in Council’s anxious consideration.
It has seemed to His Lordship in Council
that the only two measures that can be submitted at present to the legislative
council are those recommended by you, Viz 1st the repeal of the law
which gives to the trisoolee pice of Benares the privilege of circulating, at
par with the pice coined at the Calcutta mint, in the lower provinces and 2ndly
that a day should be fixed for withdrawing the privilege of being a legal
tender from the Calcutta sicca rupee.
Enclosed I am directed to transmit copy
of the resolution passed by the Governor General in Council upon the reports
and papers before him connected with these two subjects. The Mint Committee
will perceive that the 1st January 1838 has been considered by His
Lordship in Council to be the earliest date at which it would be safe to carry
the second of these measures above stated into general effect and that it will
be necessary to strain the powers of the mint in order to provide in this
interval a sufficiency of new rupees to displace the old coin in all the
districts of the interior. His Lordship in Council relies on your committee to
take all necessary steps to expedite the recoinage. It will be the duty of the
financial officers of Government to watch the circulation in the interior and
to furnish new coin wherever it may be wanted or can be issued with advantage.
With respect to the copper coinage it is
the intention of the Governor General in Council to continue to issue the old
pice as well as the new at the rate of 64 to the new rupee and as far as
possible to prescribe the same rate for receipt in satisfaction of demands
expressed in the Company’s rupee and its fractions. By this means His Lordship
in Council hopes that the demand upon the mint for copper coin will after a
time be diminished but until the 1st July next the mint will have to
exchange new pice for trisoolies at the rate of 64 of the former for 72 of the
latter under the notice about to be issued by the Governor of Bengal whereof
copy is enclosed. The only further measures which are proposed for adoption in
regard to the copper currency are the alteration of the rule at the Post Office
which prohibits the receivers from giving change, and an explanation to the
army of the nature of the advantage, which it has been endeavoured to secure to
them, of an inferior exchange of these rupees into pice at the rate of 64 to
the new rupee when their pay may be issued to them in this coin.
His Lordship in Council will at all
times be happy to receive from the Committee any suggestions which your
experience and means of observation may lead you to offer for the removal of existing
difficulties or recommending measures that may seem calculated to hasten the
accomplishment of the end in view, Viz the establishment of the new coin as the
uniform currency of Bengal as of the other Presidencies of India.
[3] Bengal Consultations. IOR P/162/86,
September No 9
Note on the name of the new rupee. From
Prinsep dated 6th
September 1835
Babu Ramcomul Sen has brought to my
notice that the Bank of Bengal is about to order out new plates for its notes
with the words “Company’s Rupee” in English, Mehajani, Persian, Nagari and
Bengali upon the field, in accordance with the Act VII, 1835
Now, the great object in equalizing the
rupee of the three presidencies was to remove all distinction and make the term
“Rupee” in British India what the term “Pound” or “Shilling” is in England that
it should have but one meaning; and that therefore nothing more than the single
word “Rupee” need be inserted in any account or document, as that one word
alone (ONE RUPEE) and not “one Company’s rupee” is inserted on the coin itself.
Where any distinction from other coin should be requisite the word Company’s
(or the native name already adopted of “Badshahee”, implying King’s head) rupee
would naturally be used as “Sterling” is applied at home.
To affix this word [i.e. “Company’s” or
“Badshahee”], however, to the bank note, will, I conceive, have the bad effect
of perpetuating an inconvenient and useless expression, besides, the notes so
titled will not be payable in Farruckhabad rupees of late coinage nor in Madras,
Bombay or Sagur rupees, all of which are now legally the same as declared by
the proclamation.
The term “Company” also in the native
languages having already an adjectional termination can only be introduced
substantively in the possessive case; thus Kampanee Ka do sou rupye [also spelt
out in native scrip] means rather “the Company’s two hundred rupees” rather
than “two hundred Company’s rupees”; besides, the expression admits of another
equivocal interpretation which, though founded on a pun, may be awkward at the
moment of issuing a rupee worth only 15 annas; Kum-pana, “to receive less”,
will be the obvious reading of the poor fellow who draws his tulub by tale.
I would earnestly suggest the propriety
of addressing both the Government and public establishments recommending the
use of the word “Rupee” alone – at the headings of accounts, on notes etc. This
will sufficiently distinguish them from the former varieties which have all had
some cognomen or other – as Sa [Sicca], Fd [Farrukhabad], Sonat etc.
The universal British Indian rupee will
require no such definition. If any term be used in conversation, I would rather
“New Rupee” be adopted, because “new” will be dropped of itself when its use
ceases.
[4] Bengal Consultations. IOR P/162/88,
December 1837 No 23
Resolution passed at the Consultation of
29th November
1837
The President in Council having given to
the above papers and especially to the minute recorded by the Governor General
before his departure, his mature consideration records the following observation
and orders
It appears that the standard of 1/12th
alloy for gold as well as silver was ordered by the Honble Court in 1806 and
the change to this standard was made by Regulation in Bengal and Madras in the
year 1818, having previously been adopted at Bombay. At Bengal it led to a
diminution of the seignorage realized by Government upon private gold and
notwithstanding the regulation, the coining of gold mohurs of the old ¾ per
cent standard was recommenced on account of Government in 1825 and on account
of individuals in 1829, to the manifest profit of the Government, first through
the increased price at which its own gold was sold when so coined and second
through the increased seignorage obtained by coining private gold into mohurs
of the purer standard which in the markets of Bengal have ever maintained
relatively to less pure gold coin a premium unaccountably high.
At Madras it appears that the coinage of
gold coin of the standard of 1/12th alloy continued until the mint
of that Presidency was abolished and the gold coin so issued is still partially
in circulation, but there is little or no gold of purer standard with which it
might be compared to show whether relatively to such it bears a discount. By
Act XVII, 1835, the mints of India were prohibited from coining other gold coin
than of the standard of 1/12th alloy and of such device as the
Governor General of India in Council in the executive department might
prescribe. There has since been an inconsiderable coinage of gold of the lion
device sanctioned by orders of this department dated 25th November
1835, but never published in the Gazette in consequence of the order having
been issued to meet a particular case, and when the devices for one description
of gold coin only had been prepared. Of this device there have been struck at
Calcutta, Double Pieces 1,174 and Single Fifteen Rupee pieces 9,133 of the
total value of only Company’s Rupees 172,215. Neither at Bombay nor at Madras
has there been any coin struck of this device nor any gold coin at all of the
1/12th or of any other standard since Act No XVII of 1835 passed.
[5] Bengal Consultations. IOR P/162/87,
June 1836, No 38
Letter to Government from the Mint
Committee dated 30th
June 1836
I am directed by the Mint Committee to
forward for the consideration and orders of the Right Honorable the Governor of
Bengal the accompanying copy of a letter dated 30th instant from the
Mint Master recommending an increase in salary to Puteet, one of the native die
engravers of the mint.
The etablishment of die engravers under
the old system was as follows, Viz
One Head Engraver, Manick (now
superannuated) at 45 ScRs per month
One assistant ditto 25
ditto
Second ditto 20
ditto
The degree of skill then required was
very small: the dies contained nothing but letter work and for these letters
there were punches, so that in fact there was little or no engraving properly
so called.
When Kasinauth was appointed head
engraver his salary was fixed with reference to what he was then in the habit
of earning out of the mint as a professional engraver and it was stipulated
that one branch of his employ, that of engraving the Government loan plates (in
imitation of engine turned work) should be still performed by him in the mint
without extra charge. In this manner the real charge to the state by his
appointment has hardly been more than half his nominal salary.
The second engraver, Hurree, who was a
jeweller and engraver by profession has also been frequently employed since his
nomination on out-of-door work, so that a considerable proportion of his salary
will likewise be refunded to the mint.
Thus it may be shown that while forming
within the mint a school of skilful engravers, an object of such essential
importance to the efficiency of the establishment and the perfection of the
coin, the new arrangements have everywhere been attended with economy.
Puteet, the engraver for whom the
present application is made, has been bred up entirely within the mint and
since the reform of the department he ahs been stimulated to cope with his
rivals in the branch of this art hitherto new to him. He has engraved the
Company’s arms for the copper coin, and has now further attempted the King’s
head, and although by no means so good as Kasinath’s work, still the Committee
are well pleased with the specimen he has submitted (the die unfortunately gave
way in hardening) and fully concur with the Mint Master in recommending that
his present advance of skill should place him in salary above the mere letter
engravers. They would fix his pay at 50 rupees per mensum which with prospect
of promotion might be considered a sufficient increase. Part of this sum, it
may be borne in mind, may again be saved by employing Puteet with the others as
occasions may arise in medal engraving and other extra work.
The engravers’ department will then
stand as follows
Head Engrave, Kasinauth (with apprentice
allowance) 300
Second engraver, Hurree 100
Third ditto, Puteet 50
1st assistant engraver,
Manick 45
2nd ditto 25
Upon the death or retirement of Manick,
who is now old, the opportunity may be taken of reducing the pay of his office
somewhat, to render the scale of increase more equable.
[6] Bengal Consultations. IOR P/162/87,
July 1836, No 7
Letter to Mint Committee from
Government, dated 6th
July 1836
I am directed by the Right Honorable the
Governor of Bengal to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated the 30th
ultimo, with its enclosures, and in reply to state that His Lordship, for
reasons assigned by you, has been pleased to sanction the increase of salary to
Puttit the engraver of the mint, from 20 to 50 Company’s rupees per mensum.
The die which accompanied your letter
seems to His Lordship to be a vary favourable specimen of this engraver’s
skill, though unfortunately it split in the process of hardening.
The die is herewith returned.
