66 E. Thurston — History of the East India Company Coinage. [No 1, 
Tlie average exchange of tlio first is two to an anna, and of the second 
four to an anna. We recommend that, for the present, the new coinage 
be limited to the first sort.” 
In their report the Baraili Committee gave the following details 
. , concerning the history of the copper coinage 
at that mint. “At Baraili no copper coinage 
was known nntil about sixteen years ago, when it was introduced by 
Mahdi ’All Khan, the amil, who coined pice called shamsher sliahi 
from their having the figure of a sword stamped upon them. They 
were generally coined out of old pice or copper utensils. This coinage 
continued two years, after which the same amil substituted another 
species of pice called machhlidars from their having the figure of 
a fish stamped upon them. A few years after an improved coinage was 
introduced by the then amil of Rohilkhand, whose pice were termed 
katar from their being stamped with a dagger. After that, when 
Mahdi ’All Khan became amil for the second time in 1205 (1790), 
though the name and appearance remained the same, the weight was 
reduced from 18 10 17 and even 16 mashas. In this diminished state 
the coinage of the katar shahis continued until the cession of the 
provinces to the Company in November, 1801. They ai’e still current in 
the southern and eastern parts of Rohilkhand, but never obtained 
circulation equal to that of the najib khanis, which are current at 
Rampur.” 
The opinion expressed by the Committee was that there were no 
special circumstances of a local nature which urgently demanded the 
introduction of a copper coinage, but that it appeared advisable, on 
general principles, to introduce a sort of pice which would be intrin- 
sically valuable from its purity, and difficult of imitation, and which 
should bear the same proportion to the local silver currency which the 
pice in the Lower Provinces bore to the Calcutta sikka rupees. 
It appears from a report by Mr. Seton that the system of farming 
the Baraili mint was abolished in 1802. No alteration was introduced 
into the standard of the rupee, except that, to mark the period at which 
the change of system took place, the Persian letter ^ (the first letter of 
the late Subah Hussain ’All Khan) was discontinued, and j (W) substi- 
tuted in compliment to the Lieutenant-Governor. 
1805. In February 1805, the authorities of the Farrukhabad mint 
recommended the coinage of milled in place 
of hammered money as a measure tending to 
correct several existing abuses and imperfections. In July a letter 
from Government stated that “ The Governor General in Council has 
determined oti the immediate introduction of a new silver coin into 
Farrukhabad. 
