THE ONLY KNOWN GENUINE INDIAN GOLD RUPEE COIN BEARING THE UNCROWNED PORTRAIT OF EDWARD VII TO BE SOLD AT NOONANS IN PART II OF THE PUDDESTER COLLECTION

The only known genuine Indian gold rupee coin bearing the uncrowned portrait of Edward VII is among the rare and unique Indian coins that will be offered by Noonans Mayfair on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 1 & 2, 2024. Estimated to fetch £15,000-20,000, the coin is from Part II of the Puddester Collection which is expected to fetch in the region of £750,000.

Peter Preston-Morley, Special Projects Director (Numismatics) at Noonans explained: “We are very pleased to be offering the second part of the Puddester Collection which focuses on the Uniform Coinage of India 1835-1947, starting with East India Company rule from 1835, and then issues of the Government of India from 1858 until independence in 1947.”

He continues: “The Puddester collection is vast, and this is the second of nine auctions that Noonans will be staging over the next few years. Part One fetched a hammer price of £1,581,800 when it was sold in February 2023. Mr Puddester, who lives in Canada and started collecting in the 1970s, hopes that this and the succeeding auctions will encourage a new generation of enthusiasts to build their own collections within India and further afield.”

Part II comprises 1,181 coins that will be sold in over 700 lots. Highlights include a unique original striking in gold of an Edward VII Rupee, dating from 1903 from the Calcutta mint [lot 1191].

As Mr Preston-Morley added: “Nothing has been recorded of this type before and the background to this exceptional piece is not known, but it can only be assumed that the original owner was a high-ranking official at the Calcutta mint, perhaps its Master, Col. Sir Buchanan Scott (1850-1937), who was in post from 1897 to 1904.”

An excessively rare and the finest known experimental silver Rupee of 1939 from the reign of George VI - believed to be the finest of the few known specimens in private hands - is estimated at £20,000-£30,000 [lot 1229].

“The 1939-dated rupees with security edges have always been regarded as one of the famed prizes in Indian numismatics” says Mr Preston-Morley, “Very few specimens, almost certainly less than 10, are known.”

Elsewhere an extremely rare gold Double-Mohur from 1835 and the reign of William IV is estimated at £15,000-£20,000 [lot 908].

Mr Preston-Morley puts it into context: “After some initial objections to the featuring of an animal on the reverses of the new gold coins, Sir Charles Metcalfe (1785-1846), the acting Governor-General, ordered that Flaxman’s lion be adopted and so dies were prepared in December 1835 and the first mohurs and double-mohurs entered circulation on New Year’s Day, 1836. By the end of 1837 only 1,174 double-mohurs had been struck, of which perhaps 20 exist today, many in institutional collections.”