oct. — -dec. 1856,] Notes on Indian Currencies, 47 



" another species of money called peisas or pechas, 30 of which 

 " make a roupee. 



" The peisas or pechas are a small piece of copper not quite 2 

 " lairds French money in value. 



" The mamoudy is their smallest piece of silver, it is valued at 

 " 10 J sols; 26 pechas = 1 mamoudy ; a roupee of silver is valu- 

 " ed at 30 French sols. 



" The roupee of gold is only known among the great lords, and 

 " is worth 14 silver roupees or 21 livres. The thiel of silver makes 

 " 11, 12 or 13 roupees current money. The massas is another 

 " piece, of which 11| make a thiel of silver ; and 10 of these make 

 " a thiel gold. 



" 100,000 roupees = a lek. 

 " 100,000 leks = a couron. 

 " 100,000 courons = padan. 

 " 100,000 padans = nil. 



I do not engage to understand Mon. Guzon's computation, in one 

 place he says, 30 peisas make a roupee and afterwards that 30 sols 

 make a roupee and that a peisa equals 2 lairds (or \ a sol), but I 

 give the extract as a curiosity. The sol, the livre, the laird, the 

 denier and the pistole formed the ancient money of France which 

 ceased to be current in 1834. 



To go back to Jervis again, who says Akbar's rupee was divided 

 into 12 massas, each massa being 15.625 grs. troy, we find, " In 

 " the reign of Shah Jehan the coinage was reduced to 11 \ massas, 

 " and this multiplied by 15.625 shows the origin of the deteriorat- 

 " ed coins of later years, and equals 179.6875 grs. troy, which 

 " standard with very trifling modifications has continued at a stay 

 " ever since, though it is remarkable through the profound ignor- 

 " ance of our own governments and countrymen on the subject or 

 " probably their apathetic indifference to such calculations and to 

 " the great financial questions in connection with the character, 

 " dignity and stability of the state, this standard has been suppos- 

 " ed to be the full weight of 12 massas or 1 tola, and now ulti- 

 " mately fixed as the unit of the monetary system throughout 

 " British India." 



