The Puddester Collection

The Uniform Coinage of India, British Imperial Period, George V, gold 15 Rupees, 1918, Bombay, crowned and robed bust left, b.m. [Bertram Mackennal] on truncation, george v king emperor around, rev. 15 rupees above india and date, all within star and entwined scrollwork, edge grained, 8.00g/12h (Prid. 25 [Sale, lot 89]; SW 8.1; KM. 525; F 1608; cf. Fore III, 2476). Obverse field hairlined, otherwise brilliant and virtually as struck
£1,200-£1,500

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

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Bt October 1985.

Owner’s envelope.

The quantity of gold being brought to the Calcutta mint for coinage in the years up to 1892 was relatively insignificant, as the mintage figures for mohurs of the period 1877-92 attest. The government, however, intended to replace mohurs with imperial sovereigns, imported from the UK and Australia, and to this effect the coining of mohurs ceased, but it was not until Act XXII, 1899, that the currency of British India changed from the rupee to the sovereign. Although the question of coining sovereigns at Bombay had been raised in 1912, it was not until the effects of the Great War and the rise in the price of silver in 1916-17 that the Indian government was minded to strike gold. On 14 June 1918 a new gold mohur, tariffed at 15 rupees and equivalent in weight to the sovereign, was announced, but coining ostensibly ceased on 15 August with the introduction of the new I-marked sovereigns (see Lot 1061). In any event, Act IV, 1927, declared gold coin no longer legal tender in India from 1 April 1927