By a financial notification of October 1868, SOTe reigns and half-sovereigns coined at any royal mint in England or Australia, of current weight, may be received in all the treasuries of British India and its dependencies, in pay-ment of sums due to Government, as the equivalent of 10 rupees 4 annas and 5 rupees 2 annas respectively ; and whenever available at any Government treasury, they may be paid at the Bain° rates to any person willing to receive them in payment of clahns against the Government.
An Indian Coinage Act (xxiii. of 1870) became law on 6th September 1870. It provides that the under-mentioned (as a matter of fact, gold coinage is confined as yet to the Calcutta mint) gold coins only shall be coined at the mints, viz. at Calcutta and Bombay, and at such other places, if any, as the Governor-General in Council may by notifica tion direct, viz. :—A gold mohur or 15 rupees piece, a 5 rupees piece, a 10 rupees piece, a 32 rupees piece or double gold. The respective weights and fineness as before, i.e. relatively to 180 grains for the mohur ; touch, 916-666.
Silver.-1 rupee, rupee, rupee, 113 rupee.
Weight of rupee, 180 grains.
Copper.-1 double pice, 1 pice, pice or one eighth of an anna, a pie or one-twelfth of an anna. The weight of the double pice to be 200 grains. The other copper coins to be of proportionate weight.
Remedy on copper coins not to exceed one fortieth iu -weight Device.—The coins struck under this Act bear on the obverse the likeness of H.M. Queen Victoria, and the inscription Victoria Queen.' On the re verse, the designation of the coin in English, filled by the word India ;' with such date and etnbellish ments on each coin as the Governor-General in Council may from time to time determine.
Legal Tender.—No gold coin shall be a legal tender in payment or on account. The said rupee and half rupee shall be a legal tender, provided that the coin has not lost more than 2 per cent. in weight, and has not been defaced or diminished otherwise than by use. The f and k rupee shall be legal tender only for the fractions of a rupee. None of the copper coins shall be legal tender except for the fraction of a rupee.
Coinage of Bullion.—Subject to the mint rules for the time being in force, the mint-master shall receive all gold and silver bullion and coin brought to the miut, provided it be fit for coinage, and that the quantity so brought at one time by one person is not less, in the case of gold, than fifty tolas, and in the ease of silver, than one thousand t olas.
All silver bullion or coin brought for coinage shall be subject to a duty of 2 per cent. on the produce of such bullion ; and this duty shall be deducted from the return to be rnade to the pro prietor.
The charge levied for premelting or for cutting such bullion, shall be, in the case of gold, Ith per Mille, and in the case of silver, 1 per mille.
The mint-master, on the delivery of gold or ver bullion or coin into the mint for coinage, shall grant to the proprietor a receipt, which shall entitle him to a certificate from the assay-master for the net produce of such bullion or coin, pay able at the general treasury. Assay certificates in case of silver are pa.yable on demand; in case of gold, are payable in gold twenty days after date of mint-master's receipt. 1Vhen bullion is brought to the mints in the shape of foreign or of un current coin, it is always melted prior to assay.
The following table exhibits the scheme of the British Indian monetary system :— Small cowrie or kauri shells are also made use of for fractional payments, and are reckoned as follows :— 4 kauri make 1 ganda. 20 ganda make 1 pan.
5 pan make 1 anna.
but their value is subject to considerable flu ctuat ion The maharajas Sindia of Gwalior and Holkar of Indore use the Ujjain rupee. In the Hyderabad State, ruled by the Asof Jahi dynasty, the Sham shiri and Hali Sikka silver rupees are current, and many rude copper coins. In the Travancore State, fanams and chakrams.
The following notes on the names of the coins and the schemes of the coinage of Eastern and Southern Asia naay be interesting :— .Annoni people have one silver coin weighing 569 grains, and another of 5895 grains, possibly the largest silver coin.
Ashraji, idurshidabad gold mohur, has a weight of 190-895 grains troy.
Adhela, from Adha, HIND., half, signifies the half of a paisa.
Burma has a coinage of 1, and rupees ; device, a peacock ; weight of Ava rupee of 1866 = 180 grains ; touch, 898.