Coins In Lucknow Mus. Vol 01 [56 MB - IndianCoins.org

40rupees must, in course of time, fall to their intrinsic worth comparedAvitli the sicca of the nineteenth sun, as they will produceno more in the mint, and to which they will necessarily be broughtto be converted into siccas, as they will be nowhere passable orin demand as coin, from being nowhere a measure of value. Therules by which the gold coin has been regulated have been productiveof evils, similar to those which have prevailed with regardto the silver coin. Under the native administration, and until theyear 1766 the gold mohur was not considered as a legal tender ofpayment in any public or private transaction, nor was the numberof rupees for which it was to pass current ever fixed by theGovernment. It was struck for the convenience of individuals, andthe value of it in the markets fluctuated like other commodities,silver being the metal which was the general measure of valuethroughout the country. In the year 1766, the value of the goldcoin with respect to the silver was first fixed, and the former coindeclared a legal tender of payment. A. gold mohur was struck andordered to pass for fourteen sicca rupees. But as this coin1-(calculating according to the relative value of the two metals) was muchbelow the worth of the silver in the number of rupees for which itwas ordered to pass, it was found impossible to render it current,and it was accordingly called in, and a new gold rnohur, beingthat now current, was issued in 1769, which was directed to passas a legal tender of payment for sixteen sicca rupees. The intrinsicworth of this coin was estimated to be equal to the nominalvalue of it, or as nearly so as was deemed necessary to render itcurrent at the prescribed rate. But whether owing to the effectof the orders for the introduction of the over-rated gold coin of1766, the considerable value of the new gold mohur, and the wantof divisions of it, so as to render the coin calculated for the dealingsof the lower orders of the people in the interior part of thecountry, or other causes, the currency of it has been almost entirelyconfined to Calcutta, where it has been received and paid inall public and private payments at the fixed value of sixteen siccarupees. But this partial currency of the gold coin has enabled themoney-changers to practice an abuse upon the public and individualsof a nature similar to that which has prevailed regardingthe silver The means which appear best calculated to renderthe gold mohur generally current are to declare it receivable atall the public treasuries and in all public payments throughoutthe provinces, at the rate of sixteen sicca rupees to make it a ; legaltender ofpayment in private transactions to coin a;great proportionof halves and quarters and; lastly, to impose a duty uponall gold bullion sent to the mint to be coined so as to prevent toolarge a proportion of gold being introduced into circulation, bydiminishing, in some degree, the advantage at present derivedfrom the importation of it in preference to silver."To guard, as far as possible, against the counterfeiting, clipping,drilling, filing, defacing, or debasing the coin, it was enactedoy Section VII of Eegulation XXXV that " the edges of both thegold and silver coin are to be milled, and the dies are to be madeof the same size as the coin, so that the whole of the impressionmay appear upon the surface of it."