oct. — dec. 1856.] Notes on Indian Currencies. 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 upon 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 walled 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 

 u 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 



