Blogs — Coin

Figure 1: Silver Rupees showing initials of William Wyon and Venancio Alves Older coins sometimes have tiny letters engraved on them – often quite prominently. A very good example, familiar to Indian collectors, is the 1840 silver rupee of the East India Company, where the letters WW (sometimes WWS) can be seen at the base of Queen Victoria’s neck (See Figure 1). The Indo-Portuguese silver Rupia of 1903-04 (King Carlos) has larger letters V ALVES – clearly visible to the naked eye. A quick test to check wear on such coins is to read these letters – given their small size,...

The 1 Pie Tarazu coin   Figure 1: 1 Pie: Calcutta Presidency The smallest unit of currency in widespread use during the British era was 1/12 anna, which was 1/192 of a rupee. This unit was also called the ‘pie’ and was equal to 1/3 of a paisa – explaining Hindi sayings such as ‘पाई पाई का हिसाब’ (pie pie ka hisaab). Upto 1835, the British minted 1 Pie coins, which after 1835 became 1/12th Anna – which continued to be minted right up to the 1940s. Figure 2: 1 Pie: Bombay Presidency Before the Revolt of 1857, India was governed by...

Nawanagar was a princely state in the Kathiawar region of Gujarat, with the Gulf of Kutch to its north. The ruler was the Jam of Nawanagar – a Jadeja Rajput and from the same clan as the rulers of Kutch. The town of Nawanagar was founded in 1540 by the first Jam Rawal, who was fleeing Kutch. The Jam Rawal in early 20th century was the well known cricketer Ranjitsinhji. The town of Nawanagar is also much better known as Jamnagar – the site of one of the world’s largest petroleum refineries, owned by Reliance Industries. Another well known port...

Mints are responsible for quality of their product – i.e. – coins they produce, and the mint-mark is a way of tracing the product back to the manufacturer. This is similar to how the packaging of most products mentions the details of manufacturing facility. The mint-mark is not the primary feature of a coin’s design, so it is usually much smaller than other design features of the coin. The first mint producing uniform coins in India was set up in Calcutta by the British, followed by Bombay and Madras mints. The Madras mint was shut down in 1869 and Calcutta...

Udaipur or Mewar, is best known for Rana Pratap’s resistance against Mughal emperor Akbar. The rulers of Udaipur were called Maharanas – the only ones in Rajputana to be honored with this title. The capital – Udaipur, was established by Udai Singh after the sack of Chittorgarh by Akbar. It was his son Pratap Singh who is now better known as Maharana Pratap. Buy Udaipur Coins Udaipur was one of the larger princely states in the British era, and the ruler was entitled to a 19-gun salute. Post independence, Udaipur was one of the first states to sign the instrument...