Coins
were issued from the Shāhjahānābād mint by:
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The
Moghul Emperor, Shāh ‘Ālam II, who was nominal ruler of what remained
of the empire, was in Delhi for the greater part of his reign, but was a mere
puppet. In 1803, during the second Maratha war, Lord Lake took Delhi and
thenceforth the rule of the Moghuls was confined to the palace and the Emperor
had no official function.
Although
the British had effective control of the mint at Delhi, 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
I have therefore chosen to include it in this section. Sanjay Garg has
published much information from the records held in the National Archives of
India and his paper is worth reading in conjunction with the following
information.
The
first reference to coinage at Dehlī found in the EIC records occurs in
1806 when the Delhi Resident (Mr Seton) wrote a long letter explaining that the
Emperor insisted on his stipend (58,000 Rs) being
paid in Delhi 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:
‘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 Barelī 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 Barelī 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.
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. The plan was to strike
Farrukhābād rupees at the Dehlī mint and by January 1818 all
that was needed were the dies. The Mint Master at Calcutta was instructed to
prepare the dies for Dehlī 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. 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 Delhi mint, their influence
on the public convenience and the degree in which the coinage there may appear
to you to include bullion which would otherwise find its way to the mint at
Farrukhābād.
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 Delhi from consideration towards his majesty the King. At
the Delhi mint a new coinage takes place every year commencing on the
anniversary of his Majesty’s accession to the throne, which is marked with the
number of the year of his reign. On the public celebration of the anniversary
of the accession, the Resident presents to his Majesty a portion of the gold
and silver coinage for the new year, and the continuance of this custom, which
would merely require the stamping of a few coins once in a year, is all I
imagine that can be requisite to satisfy the feelings of his Majesty.’
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.
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Amount Coined |
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June 1816-May 1817 |
Gold Mohurs |
457 |
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Rupees |
78,148-12 |
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June 1817-28th May 1818 |
Gold Mohurs |
41 |
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Rupees |
59,323-12 |
From
this it can be seen that very small numbers of mohurs were minted at this time,
with slightly 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.
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Delhi Rupee with Floral Border |
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Delhi Rupee with Lion and Umbrella |
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Delhi Rupee with Umbrella and Star |
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It
is not clear exactly when the Delhi mint was closed but it continued to produce
small numbers of presentation pieces for at least a few more years because in 1821
the following letter was sent by the Delhi Resident to Calcutta:
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 Bānāras or Farruckabad or even to the Presidency, but on
this point you will be better determined than I can venture to do, and I
therefore solicit your orders. It is a pity that such work and such materials
should be unemployed.
The
silver and gold mint may have still been used in a similar manner for some
years because there was a discussion of the appropriate presentation of nuzaars (presentation pieces) to the Emperor in 1835.
However, it is not clear that these pieces were struck in Delhi.
In
1826 serious consideration was given to the construction of a new copper mint
in Delhi, to the extent of planning the cost of manufacture and the
establishment required
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120 pice of 8 massas
each to be made out of each one seer of copper the value of which never
exceeds |
1:13 |
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Manufacture of this one seer of copper
into 120 pice |
0:1 |
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Total expense |
1:14 |
Establishment
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1 mint Darogah including expense of stationary
per mensum |
40: : |
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1 Mohurrir |
16: : |
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1 Chupprassy |
4: : |
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20 artificers at different rates of
pay average each 6 rupees |
120: : |
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Total monthly expense |
180: : |
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The above establishment per diem Rs6 being
competent to coin per diem 2 maunds and 12 seers each at 1 anna per seer is
equal to |
5:12 |
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The excess of charge per diem |
-:4 |
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Will be amply defrayed by the
variation in the price of the metal which sometimes falls as low as 1 rupee 6
annas per seer |
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The
establishment of a copper mint was again proposed in 1829 but was finally
rejected.
KM
give a listing of coins struck during the British period and that list will not
be repeated here. KM catalogues them under the Moghul Emperors and nominally,
at least, Dehlī was under the Emperor’s control. The coins consist of
copper pice (with a Latin S) in the name of Muḥammad Akbar; silver
rupees, both currency and Nazarana, in the names of Shāh ‘Ālam
(illustrated above), Muḥammad Akbar and Bahādur Shāh; and gold
mohurs, both currency and Nazarana for Shāh ‘Ālam and Muḥammad
Akbar.