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

55ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY, and on the reverse with the wordsEnglish Company's rupee in the Persian character that the;goldhalf rupee shall bear the Company's crest and the words ENGLISHEAST INDIA COMPANY on the face, and the words English Company'shalf rupee in the Persian character on the reverse that the ; goldquarter rupee shall bear the Company's crest and the wordsENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY on the face, and the words EnglishCompany's quarter rupee in the Persian character on the reverse.By Regulation XI of 1819 the coinage of the Benares rupee 1819.was discontinued, and the Farrukhabad rupee declared the localcurrency of the province of Benares. " The Benares mint,"Prinsep says " 1had been established by Raja Balwant Singh in:1730. It remained under native management for twenty yearsafter the province was ceded to the Company in 1775. The rupeehad the full weight of one hundred and seventy-five grains, andwas 2 per cent, better than the present rupee, or about equal tothe Dihli rupee of that date. It fell in value subsequently aboutfour anas per cent, and there, of course, remained under Englishmanagement until it was abolished."In a letter to Government, dated 8th March 1820, the Madras 1820.Mint Committee recommended that "the gold rupee should bedivided into thirds instead of halves and quarters. The thirdwould be of the value of five rupees, which is a most convenientsum for computation. A coin of that value, we have no doubt, wouldbe in great request, and thus would both contribute to the convenienceof the public, and, by promoting the circulation of gold,would maintain its relative value to the standard coin of theGovernment." The Mint Master was ordered to prepare a specimenof a third, to be submitted for the sanction of the Governorin Council. The main reason of the recommendation of the MintCommittee was that, as the gold rupee was equal in value tofifteen silver rupees, the half equal to seven rupees and a half, andthe quarter to three rupees and three quarters, these fractionalparts did not correspond to any exact number of the coins nextinferior in denomination, and were of a value so inconvenient asto prevent their ever being much in use.The following letter was addressed to Government by theAccountant-General, Fort St. George, on 28th February 1 820 :" By the report of the balance of the general treasury, datedthe 20th instant, it is stated that there are no silver annas remaining,and, as it is expedient that there should be an ample supplyof that coinage in substitution for the old and new Madrasfananis which should be withdrawn from circulation, I beg torecommend that instructions be issued to the Mint Master toconvert a greater portion of his silver balance into annas and toproceed upon the recoinage of the half and quarter pagoda, ofdollar standard, including the five double and single fanampieces." There is also in circulation a rupee of the coinage of 1807, ofdollar standard, which should also be called in and recoined, as1Op. cit., p. 26.