IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 
195 
being impressed witli as many as four different types of 
character, such as Persian, Devanagari, Canarese, Tamil, 
Telugu and so forth. As, however, there can be no difficulty 
in recognizing all these, they require no detailed notice. 
To return now to the issues in the more precious metals 
that found currency beyond the limits of this Presidency. 
While the Hindu method of pagoda and fanam was in use 
here, the rest of India had the Mahomedan rupee system, 
and this consisted of an endless variety of issues from 
native mints, each gradually but surely depreciating in value, 
in inverse ratio to the comparative integrity of the ruler of 
the state at the time. Even the Company's coins varied very 
considerably, each Presidency having its own particular 
mint or mints. Those struck in Calcutta (known as the 
" sikka " rupee) bear on the obverse the name of the then 
ruling Moghal Emperor Shah Alum and on the reverse 
^^yU u^j^ (struck at Murshidd- 
bdd in the 19th year of the happy reign) ; those of Faruekd- 
bdd (afterwards struck at Sagur) have ^* ^ ^W^c/ 
,_y.yU oJ-K-- (struck at Faruckdbdd in the 40th year 
of the happy reign). The appearance of the same " jalus " 
date on each coin of the same mint would render the 
assignment of anything approaching the year of mintage 
an impossibility, except by means of assay, were it not 
that a difference was made in the style of milling. Thus 
the old Calcutta rupee from 1793 to 1818 and that of Faruckd- 
b4d from 1803 to 1809 had an oblique milling. Those 
coined between 1819 and 1832 in the former and between 
1819 and 1824 in the latter had the edge straight milled like 
the ordinary coins of to-day, and all subsequent to these a 
plain and unmilled edge. The Bombay series bears date the 
46th year of Shah Alum's reign, the inscription being o^V^ 
^ '^jr' vy" u«y^ ,j>.i.^ . The Bombay (?) mint also 
turned out in 1825 a series of rough coins, consisting of a 
mohur, rupee, half and quarter rupee bearing the same 
