Baroda State

Baroda – 21 gun state

See Classical Numismatic Gallery, sale 27 for a great collection of copper coins of Baroda

See A short typology of Baroda Rupees (worldofcoins.eu)

Also: work of Jean-Yves VIGGIANO

History

See Gaekwad dynasty - Wikipedia for another overview

Rulers

Nandaji Rao Gaikwad, died May 1721

Kerojirao

Jhingojirao

Pilaji Rao Gaikwad, reigned from 1721, died 14 May 1732

I. Damaji Rao, reigned from 1732, died 18 August 1768

II. Sayaji Rao I, reigned 1768–1778, died 1792
III. Fateh Singh Rao I, born before April 1751, reigned from 1778, died 26 December 1789
IV. Manaji Rao, born before April 1751, reigned from 1789, died 27 July 1793
V. Govind Rao, born 175?, reigned from 1793, died 19 September 1800

VI. Anand Rao, born 179?, reigned from 1800, died 2 October 1819
VI. Sayajirao II, born 3 May 1800, reigned from 1819, died 28 December 1847

VII. Ganpat Rao, born 1816, reigned from 1847, died 1856
VIII. Khanderao II GCSI, born 1828, reigned from 1856, died 14 June 1870
IX. Malhar Rao, born 1831, reigned 1870 – 19 April 1875, died in obscurity in 1882

Prataprao (d. 1737 Kavlana branch)

Kalojirao

Gabajirao

Bhikajirao

Kashirao (1832-1877)

X. Sayajirao III GCSI, GCIE, born 10 March 1863, reigned from 1875, died 6 February 1939

Yuvraja Fatehsinhrao (1883-1908)

XI. Pratap Singh Rao GCIE, born 29 June 1908, reigned from 1939, titular Maharaja from 1949, deposed 1951, died 19 July 1968

XII. Fatehsinhrao II, born 2 April 1930, titular Maharaja 1951–1971, family head: 1971–1988, died 1 September 1988
XIII. Ranjitsinh, born 8 May 1938, family head from 1988, died 9 May 2012

XIV. Samarjitsinh, born 25 April 1967, family head since 2012

Coinage [1]

His Highness the Gaikwar, being an independent prince, coins his own money. There has been a mint at Baroda from very early days. It was certainly in existance at the time of the first treaty between Baroda and the British at the beginning of this century [i.e. nineteenth]. The mint turns out silver and copper coins. The silver coins, consisting of rupees, half rupees, quarter rupees, and two-anna bits are termed the new Siyashahi, or, more commonly, Babashahi rupees; the copper coins are ordinarily termed Baroda pice. The origin of these terms is doubtful: the regent Fatesing was also called Baba Saheb, and Siyashahi may be derived form Sayaji. It is certain that there are no coins in existance anterior to Sayaji. Some ascribe the term Babashahi to Babaji Appaji. The annual outturn of silver coins from the mint amounted, nearly forty years ago, to about 75 lakhs of rupees, though it is now, for reasons to be given, less than that. Each rupee was then intrinsically worth 13 annas 11 pice in British currency, and its value has not much altered. The present minister remarks: ‘The current Babashahi rupee bears a fluctuating exchangeable value with the British rupee within a known range. The exchange for 100 British rupees varies from 112 to 120 Babashahi rupees. The value of the Babashahi rupee is less than the British only because it is lighter; its purity is not inferior.

The charge for conversion of metal into coin is four annas per 100 rupees, and the currency circulates, with exceptions, throughout the Baroda dominion, and the Mahi and Rewa Kantha states.

The mint is of the rudest type and little or no machinery is employed. A large hole is made in the ground and an earthenware vessel capable of containing twenty thousand tolas of silver is placed in it, over and under fuel composed of kher wood. To purify the silver a quantity of borax is thrown into the pot. When it has been thoroughly melted the liquid silver is poured out of a spoon into long thin shallow moulds, each calculated to contain from ten to twenty tolas of silver. After cooling, these slabs are entrusted to goldsmiths in quantities of from 100 to 500 tolas per man. The goldsmiths cut the slabs into small pieces, each weighing as near as possible 29 vals, 1 gunj [the weight of a rupee]. These pieces are then cleaned and stamped by hand; on one side in Balbodh are the letters Kh. G., a sword, and the Hijri era 1237; on the reverse the words ‘Sikkay Mubarik, Sena Khas Khel, Shamsher Bahadur’, in Persian characters.

Sir T. Madhavrav has enumerated the defects of the Baroda coins: 1^st, the impression on one coin differs from that on another, as the whole of the impression required is not received by any one coin, but only a chance part of it; 2^nd, the die is a rude one and easily counterfeited; 3^rd, the shape of the coin is so imperfect, and it is so utterly without milling at the edge, that, if portions of the silver are filed off, the fact cannot be detected; 4^th, the coin is so thick that it cannot be sounded; 5^th, the shape of it is such that it is needlessly subjected to friction or wearing; 6^th, the weight of the coin at the moment of issue is not uniform; 7^th, to make up for the want of weight in the blanks, the mint workmen stick a piece of silver on or drive one into a hole made in the blank, which supplemental piece often drops out; 8^th, the fineness of the coin is not accurately adjusted to the currency; 9^th, the coin from day to day bears a varying ratio to the British coin. Add to this that there is no system for recalling deteriorated coin, and that in every transaction that takes place the people have to take the piece to an assayer to cause it to be tested, the work not being done without a consideration.

In intrinsic value 114½ Baroda rupees equal 100 British rupees, but the rate of exchange is constantly varying according to the demand in the market or, in other words, according to the nature of the commercial transactions with Bombay. When the import trade is brisk goods must be purchased with British money; but during the cotton season, that is from March to May, the produce of the fields is purchased with Baroda money. The rate of exchange for 100 British rupees may in the first instance rise to 120 or 121, in the second it may fall to 112 Baroda rupees. The varying rates affect the operation of the mint. The mint only works when bullion is brought to it by private individuals to convert into coin, and naturally, these will only bring bullion when the conversion is profitable, that is, when the exchange rate is low.

Till lately the seignorage of the Baroda state consisted in a proportion of the profits made by the private individual who brought bullion to the mint, the proportion being a matter of negotiation in each case before the coins were struck. Now bullion is received from any tenderer, converted into coin, and a regular percentage of the number of coins struck is reserved to the state.

In consequence of the rudeness of the Baroda rupee it is much counterfeited. There are many coins in the market which contain 12 or 15 vals of alloy instead of 6½ vals; they are termed mohorpher, and are admitted into use in private transactions and valued at their intrinsic worth. The state does not recognise them, but it cannot, owing to the badness of its own coinage, prohibit them. It recognizes, however, the faultiness which makes it necessary for the people either to have every coin that changes hands tested or to run the risk of being taken in. In order partially to remedy the evil a notice was issued in 1880 that all Baroda coins issued from the mint i.e., those not counterfeited, should be received and issued at the treasury, except coins of which the device was not legible and such as had lost the bits originally tacked on. The natural consequence of this is to enable Babashahi coins to pass from hand to hand without the charge of discount.

The copper coins are made in as rude a way as the silver, the bullion being, likewise, in the first instance brought from Bombay. The coins are double pice, pice and half pice. There are no pies, and small exchange is effected in Baroda with almonds and cowrie shells. There is no rule to fix the number of pice going to the rupee; at present 64 pice make one rupee, some time ago 90 pice made one rupee. No copper coinage has been issued from the mint in the last ten years, and yet the rate of profit should be fifteen per cent. It was the practice of each of the last two or three Gaikwars to recall, on his accession, all the copper coinage of his predecessor and to coin his own coppers.

It would perhaps be instructive, but it would certainly prove tedious, to recount the results of this currency. An instance will suffice. In March 1809 Lieutenant Carnac, Acting Resident, reported to Government that the coinage of the western districts consisted chiefly of the Ahmedabad Shikai rupees, the mint of which had for four or five years been managed by the capitalists Vakatsing and Khushalchand. The coin had been allowed to deteriorate considerably in intrinsic value, but it nevertheless exchanged favourably among the people with the purer and more valuable Baroda rupee. Consequently the Baroda rupees were being rapidly taken to Ahmedabad and melted down, the gain on the transaction being about 1½ per cent. The same drain of specie was felt at Rutlam, and all the Baroda state could do was to refuse insurance on the export of bullion from the state. The Baroda mint had to cease coining for two years; there was not enough coin to pay the bills for 1½ lakhs; even the current expenses of the army could not be paid off except at a loss of 4½ per cent. Captain Carnac could think of no better plan than to ask the Bombay Government for a loan of bullion of at least 5 lakhs. Owing to the general indebtedness of the Gaikwar, this was at first refused, but at last he got a loan of 25,000 dollars, that is 2½ lakhs of rupees. How the difficulty was got over does not much matter now. The confusion then existing is evident, as the people who generally supplied the mint with bullion refused to go to Bombay and found their profit in the difficulty the state was in; so much so indeed, that they hid their money. At this time Captain Carnac represented the Broach coinage as bad and the mints at Baroda, Ahmedabad and Petlad to be in a state of negligence.

Unfortunately for the Baroda state the British and the Babashahi are not the only currencies in the market. (top p138)