1893.] E. Thurston — History of the Hast India Company Coinage. 59 
assisted in so doing by large importations from Allahabad. In the 
22nd year Raja Ohait Singh ordered pice to be coined of the same size 
and weight as the Allahabad pice, and this contributed greatly to over- 
stocking the circulation. In the 23rd and 24th years, after the expul- 
sion of Chait Singh, the same weight (9m. 2r.) was continued, and the 
price of pice continued to fall until the famine in the next year, when 
they sold at thirteen for a rupee. In the 27th year the Resident at 
Benares ordered that no pice should be issued from the mint under 
10m. 3r. and that Gorakhpur pice, weighing 10m. to 10m. 3r. and 
Benares pice, weighing 10m. 3r. should pass at the same value. The 
price immediately rose to 58 per rupee. In the 28th year (1787), when 
it was supposed that sufficient new pice had been coined for the city 
of Benares, the Gorakhpur pice were forbidden, and only the new 
Benares pice stamped with a trisul (trident), and weighing from 10m. 
to 10m. 3r. and the Gorakhpur pice, re-stamped and not under 10m. in 
weight, were declared current. 
As regards the gold coinage at the Benares mint, it is stated that 
the gold was assayed there by touch on a species of the salgram* stone 
so celebrated in the sastras of the Hindus. Upon comparing the 
Calcutta with the Benares gold mohars, it was found (1787) that the 
former was about Rs. 2-1-6 better than the latter, i. e., R. 1-14-9 in 
weight and As 2-9 in assay. It was suggested, therefore, that the 
Benares mohar should be raised to the same weight and standard as 
the Calcutta mohar. 
1792. On June 26, 1792, the following regulations were submitted, 
among others, for the consideration of the 
shkfdbdd ^ >a ^ na ’ -®^ ur ' Governor General : — 
I. That the rupees coined throughout 
Bengal, Bihar, f and the district of Benares, be of the same weight, 
standard, size and impression (the rupee of the 19th san then coined 
at Calcutta). 
II. That the mints of Dacca, Patna and Murshidabad be re- 
established. 
III. That one species of copper coin be declared current through- 
out the Company’s dominions. 
In August, 1792, it was notified that directions had already been 
given by the Governor Genei’al for the re-establishment of the mints 
at Dacca, Patna, and Murshidabad ; and in the same month, the follow- 
* S'alagrama stones are fossil ammonites, which, as worshipped by the Hindus, 
are commonly perforated by holes believed to have been made by Yishnu. 
f 1 have, for convenience, adopted a uniform spelling of the names, of places, 
e. g., Bihar and Murshidabad instead of Behar and Hoorshodabad, 
