OCT. — DEC. 1856.] Notes on Indian Curre?icies, 51 
" trade of the Company is carried on. It is the money of account 
" according to which the value of the other Rupees is calculated. 
" The Arcot Rupees are coined by the English at Arcot and by the 
" French at Pondicherry. The gold Rupee called Mohur is worth 
" 15 silver Sicca Rupees." 
At page 475 of vol. ii. of his voyages he describes the Mint at 
Surat. " The mint where the silver is imported and coined into 
" Rupees, by having the impression of , the Emperor's name and 
*' the year of his reign stamped hpon them, is a large pile sur- 
*' rounded by a high wall— along the wall are sheds under which 
" the workmen sit : on the right hand is an elevated apartment for 
" the overseers and inspectors when any work is doing ; opposite 
" to it a square place is wallei off where the silver and copper are 
" melted and cast in moulds into bars or ingots. The metal is 
*' weighed to the workmen who cut it into pieces of the exact 
" weight which the coin to be struck requires, every one having a 
" pair of scales at hand for that purpose in which every piece is se- 
" parately weighed. These workmen beat it round and flat, though 
" one piece sometimes falls thicker than another to which exact 
*' attention is not paid. It then goes to the coiners who were then 
*' about 30 in number, each of whom has an assistant, who puts 
" the prepared piece of copper or silver upon the lower die, while 
*' the other places the upper one which he holds in his left hand 
" upon them, and stamps the impression upon them with a forcible 
" blow of a hammer." 
Schomberg describes the Mint of the king of Oude much in the 
same terms : his account is somewhat more modern, and it ap- 
pears the Oude Mint paid more attention to the beauty of the coin 
and the accuracy of workmanship, the description does not other- 
wise differ much from that given of the Surat Mint. 
Mr. Holt Mackenzie in his evidence before the Select Committee 
in 1832 says, " the Sicca Rupee has been a legal tender in Calcutta 
" ever since we acquired the country— the present Sicca Rupee bears 
*' the date of the 19th year of the last King— There were 3 Rupees, 
" the current Rupee, the Sonat Rupee, and the Sicca Rupee— 
But previously to A. D. 1773, the Rupees were distinguished by 
