The Puddester Collection (Part I)

East India Company, Bengal Presidency, Calcutta Mint: Early Years, Monetary Ticket, copper 8 Pice or Anna (?), cancellation marks, rev. traces of design (?), 31mm, 20.25g (Prid. –; Stevens –). Fine, extremely rare £200-£300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Puddester Collection.

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Collection

Owner’s ticket.

In October 1757 the Calcutta mint master, William Frankland, was authorised to produce copper tickets to pay the labourers rebuilding Fort William. These tickets were stamped with different values. Several denominations are known and were published by Stevens (2017, p.7), but all are of great rarity. The 2 pice first published in 2006 (Stevens 1.24) was subsequently sold in Oswal Auction 19 (December 2010), lot 117; no others are believed to have been sold in recent years. The weight of this particular piece might suggest a value of 8 pice was intended. It seems possible that the cancellation marks on this piece and the next were connected with eliminating the Company’s balemark on local coinage at the same time that Calcutta mint coins began to bear the name of Shah ‘Alam in June 1761