1893.] E. Thurston — History of the East India Company Coinage. 71 
The same letter states that “ the quantity of gold which has been 
coined in the Benares mint since 1782 only amounted to 121,949 mohars 
or about 1,768,260 rupees, whilst, during the same period, the silver 
coinage has amounted to rupees 51,631,000, and it is accordingly 
proposed by the Board of Commissioners that the Benares mint shall 
not be open for the coinage of gold bullion in future.” 
A Regulation for the future management of the Benares mint, (the 
Benares date* of which is not given in the records), 
has, among its clauses, the following : — 
Preamble. Whereas it has been deemed advisable to continue the 
mint at Benares, and to assimilate the internal management of it to 
the rules already in force in the Mints of Calcutta and Farrukhabad, 
the following rules have been enacted to be in force from their pro- 
mulgation : — 
I. The silver coin now current in the Benares province under the 
denomination of the machhlidar rupee, commonly called the Benares 
rupee, shall continue to be the established coin of the province, and 
shall be received as such in all public and private transactions. 
IT. The Benares rupee is to continue of the following weight, and 
half and quarter rupees are to bo coined of the same standard and 
proportionate weight : — 
Troy grains ... ... ... 175 
Pure silver ... ... ... 168-875 
Alloy ... ... ... ... 6T25 
III. The Benares rupee shall hereafter be struck of the same size 
and form as the 19th san rupee struck in the mint of Calcutta, and 
shall bear the same impression as is now in use ; 
IY. The half and quarter rupee shall be proportionately less than 
the rupee, and shall have the same impression as the rupee ; 
V. The edges shall be milled, and the dies (to be cut in the 
Calcutta mint) shall be made of the same size as the coin, so that the 
whole impression may appear; 
VI. The mint master at Calcutta shall cause a private mark to 
to be put upon all the dies which may be prepared for the Benares 
mint. 
1812. In 1812 the Lieutenant- Governor of Java asked that a 
supply of copper coinage might be sent from 
^ ava ' Bengal to Batavia, as the want of a small 
currency was felt throughout the colony. The coinage, it was sug- 
gested, should consist of 165 coins to one Dutch pound weight, and the 
device be cither the figure of a buffalo or elephant, and on the reverse, 
Java and the date. 
* It was probably 1810, as it refers to “ From and after the first day of 1811.” 
