IN SOUTHEEN INDIA. 
177 
" X " or lY KAS " as tlie case might he, with the date 
PI. Ill, Nos. 43, 44. ^^^^"^ ™' "^^^^^ 
taking place about the commencement 
of the present century, when for a time Tranquebar ceased to 
be in Danish hands. It was, however, restored in 1814, and 
from that date the new reverse may very probably have 
been brought into use. The coins most commonly met with 
are those of Christian YI, Christian YII, and Frederic YI, 
the latest specimen in my collection bearing date 1843, only 
two years after which the English purchased Tranquebar, 
Serampore and Porto Novo, and the Danish power, whose 
missionaries had been among the first to labour among the 
Natives of Southern India, ceased to exist in the Peninsula. 
A little further to the north again we find considerable 
nimibers of the issues of the French mint of Pondicherry, 
or as it was usually called Puducheri. As early as 1604 
a French East India Company had been started, and this 
was succeeded by several others, all the surviving ones of 
which, together with those of Senegal, the West Indies, and 
China, were united in 1719. When we consider how exten- 
sive were the operations of the French forces in Southern 
India, and how wide the extent of country over which 
those operations were carried out, we cannot fail to be 
surprised at the small number of varieties of French coins 
struck in India. While the plodding merchants of the 
English East India Company were trading, building fac- 
tories, and carrying out extensive mercantile transactions 
with the natives, leaving to their armies the defence of their 
rights and the extension of their territorial power, France 
on the other hand seems to have concentrated her whole 
energy in the operations of her forces, and to have paid com- 
'2 Since the above appeared in type the Eev. J. E. Tracy has sent me two 
new varieties of Tranquebar coins which I have figured as Nos. 66 and 67 
(Plate TV), and I have also been able to add to my own collection a silver 
issue weighing 35 grains with Frederic "VI's monogram cn one side and on 
the other 2, FANO. 1816. 
