Map

Madras (Chīnāpatan/ Arkot) Mint

Coins were issued from the Madras mint by:

Europeans	British	Early Coinages c1643-1806
		Madras Mint, Mint Name Chīnāpatan
		Madras Mint, Mint Name Arkot
		Reformation 1807-1818
		Later Coinages 1812-1835

History & Coinage[1]

See Nelson Wright; also Extracts from the IOR

The EIC obtained the right to strike coins at Madras when they were first given the piece of land on which to establish their factory [2].

The first mint at Madras was apparently completed in 1643 when it was probably controlled by native moneyers, with gold being sold to them for conversion into coin. At some time during the 1640s, possibly in about 1646/7 when the army of Golconda took control of the area, a European supervisor was appointed and the mint came more directly under control of the Company officials. The mint was extended in 1660-1661, when copper was added to the coinage and Pridmore quotes a contemporary account of the method of operating the mint during the 1660s [3]:

A new mint is mentioned in the records in 1695 situated in the outer fort or white town [4] and in 1711 the minting of gold and silver was separated into two mints. In 1725-27 the silver mint was rebuilt. Thurston [5], records a contemporary account of the operation of the mint, dated 16th August 1742:

‘It is a great concern to me to observe by an extract from the General Letter from England, that the Honorable Company should have the least value of reason to suspect that I have been anyway negligent in my duty towards them; for I do assure your Honors, that I have at all times used my utmost care and diligence, as much as in me lay, to keep the minters to their weight and standard in all the moneys that have been coined since my time; and that I never discovered any attempt to adulterate the coin, but in the affair of Rangum with which I took care to acquaint this Honorable Board.

The methods of coinage in the Tower of London differ much from what is used here; it being impossible to adulterate the gold and silver there after the Assay Master has tried them, being cast into bars, before the assays are taken. Those bars afterwards run through flatting mills, the money cut out with an engine, milled and stamped, but no more melted. The constant method here has been, first to melt the gold or silver, and break it into small grains or powder; the muster is taken by the Assay Master; after which (if the proper standard), the grains or powder is distributed among a great number of coolies in several work-houses or godowns: who weigh every rupee and pagoda separate, and afterwards deliver them to other coolies to melt. Different persons receive them to flat, and others to stamp. By which method of working, your Honors must be very sensible, that, if it was not for some confidence which must be put in the undertakers, and the fear of punishment in such as should be detected, my utmost care and vigilance could not prevent from adulterations. The only check upon them, and what I frequently make use of after the first trial, is to take muster of their moneys in their presence, to assay after it is finished, to let them see I have a watchful eye over them.

What I have already said, with the present flourishing state of the mint, will I humbly hope induce my Honorable Masters to believe that I have not been any way negligent in my duty hitherto, and shall take my utmost care that they have no cause of complaint in the future.

I am,

Honorable Sir and Sirs,

Your most obedient and humble Servant,

Sidney Foxall’

The French destroyed large parts of the mint when they occupied Madras in 1746-1749 and it was not rebuilt until 1754, with another silver mint being added in 1792/3.

Roebuck reviewed the activities of the mint in 1798 [6].

In 1807 machinery was introduced into a new mint, which continued to operate until well after the introduction of the uniform coinage 1835 [7].

Map from 1726

References

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[1] Pridmore

[2] Foster (1912) The English Factories in India 1637-1641. Clarendon Press Oxford, p157:

Grant for Madras August 1639

‘Also that the said English Company shall perpetually Injoy the priviledges of mintage, without paying any Dewes or dutyes whatsoever, more than the ordinary wages or hire unto those that shall Quoyne the moneyes’.

[3] Pridmore

‘Concerning coynage, we first take an essay of the gold and the weight before it goeth into the Mint, and then appoynt some one of the Companies servants to sit by while it is meltinge. Afterwards we weigh it again and make up the accompt of the losse in meltinge and for every 128 oz the sheroffs alow 1161 pa(godas)….. The standard of the Pagoda is 8 5/8 or 8¾ matt. Five per mille is allowed on the customs for coynage (half to the Company and the other half to the Kinge) and 6 1/8 per mille for the laboorers, besides for charcoale, oile, etc. One fifth part copper and four-fifths silver in the alloy’

[4] Pridmore

[5] Thurston E., (1890), History of the coinage of the territories of the East India Company in the Indian Peninsula. Government Press, Madras.

[6] Boards Collections. Letter from B. Roebuck to Madras Government dated 26^th June 1798. IOR F/4/46, No. 1084.

In consequence of the commands of the Honble the Governor on Council by your letter of the 2^nd instant, I have personally examined the gold and silver mint and have now the honor to lay before you for his information statements of the same together with list of the servants employed at the mint.

Silver Mint

During the late war when a considerable quantity of silver was required to be coined, it was found requisite to build a new mint, as without that aid, in the apartments then used, no more than 3 lacs of rupees could be coined monthly. When the new mint was built, and the silversmiths collected together, in one month 10 lacs of rupees have been coined, and there can be no difficulty of doing the same again, with the same means. The new mint is now used for containing military stores, and in the confined state of the present, there can only be coined about 3 lacs of rupees monthly.

I must here observe that after the coinage is completed, 6 weeks or two months are required to extract from all the different vessels which have been used in the coinage, the silver which adheres to them.

Gold Mint

In the present gold mint there are only two apartments, which are not sufficient for the coinage, as there is no separate place to wash and amalgamize the gold which has adhered to the vessels used in making the pagodas, the whole of which are beat up, washed and triturated with quicksilver; but if one set of apartments in Fort Square, which are close to the mint, are given up, there will then be a place for conducting this branch of the business separately, while the coinage is going forward; and there will be no occasion for any stop to be put to the coining. In that case two lac and forty thousand pagodas may be regularly coined monthly; but in the present mint there is no place for conducting that operation without stopping the other business, one lac and forty thousand a month is as much as can be regularly coined.

The Mint Establishment of servants are as follows

Assay Office

An Assay Master @ 200 pagodas per annum

Malabar Monthly Servants

A Writer @ 4 Pagodas per month

A sheroff @ 4 ditto

A Surveyor @ 5 ditto

A Surveyor’s Assistant @ 3 ditto

A Comiopoly @ 6 ditto

A Furnace Man when employed @ 12 fanams per day

A Flatting Man ditto ditto

A Chop Cutter for making chops

For 1 lac of star pagodas 4 Pagodas

Madras Pagodas 2 Pagodas

Rupees 5 Pagodas

240lbs Madras Fanams ¼ Pagoda

1 Candy Madras Doodoos 3/8 Pagoda

There then follows a list of the fees of the Assay Office.

There is also a contractor who has no fixed salary. The contractor takes upon himself the whole expenses of the coinage, such as artificers implements, fuel and attendants; with all wastage of gold and silver and is accountable for all deficiencies, for which he receives as follows

On Silver 17½ Rupees per 1000

On Gold 6½ Pagodas per 1000

Madras Fanams 2½ per cent

Madras Dubbs Pags 23,,5,,50 per candy

When he refines silver which is not of a proper touch, he receives 3 ¼ per cent for such silver.

When gold is required to be refined, he receives for refining 1 ¼ per cent, but there is very little gold brought to this place, which requires refining. He also pays two thousand pagodas a year to the Governor; and in a year when there is not much coinage, he scarcely receives more than the public expense of the mint.

As a result of the report, repairs were ordered to be carried out at both the silver and gold mints.

[7] Pridmore p4-6

Thurston E., (1890), History of the coinage of the territories of the East India Company in the Indian Peninsula. Government Press, Madras.