I found this coin among a handful of coins I bought from a dealers bulk bin. To my untrained eye, it appears to be from India. I have searched high and low, however, and cannot find this exact coin although there are many look-a-likes in the 1801-1900 catalog. The coin weighs 5.6g, and is 23mm in diameter. It is yellow in color (I'm guessing copper). Being unable to read india script, I am at a loss as to what the inscriptions say. I hope the picture is clear enough to help. This is the best I could get from this coin. Its not in great shape and wouldn't begin to know how to rate it. If anyone has any idea what it is, or can read any of the inscriptions, I'd be greatful. Regards, Bill
try afghanistan or yemen, as well as india. they issued very similar coins, however this one looks indian possibly hyderabad
My grasp of Indian history is weak; can you tell us a bit about the background of this pice? Err... piece?
India contrary to what many believe was not a country a few centuries ago, it was more like an area. What eventually became the country of India (Because of the British), was a group of independent kingdoms that spoke many different languages and had completely different cultures. It was ten times as diverse as Europe but packed into 1/2 the space. Over 4 centuries ago, a group of British Traders formed something called as a British East India Trading Company. They tried to bring back exotic spices and eastern novelties to European markets to make money. They reached India for the purposes of trading and got permission from the local rulers to establish a trading post and trade in India. These outposts were established in cities like Madras, Calcutta, Bombay since they were all coastal cities that were spread along the coast of India. Over the years, the British were able to exploit differences between rulers and had the ability to tilt the balance of power with their guns. So the traders became land owners and eventually local rulers and then had control over almost the whole of India. These trade posts eventually became called as presidencies because they were ended up becoming the administrative units of their Indian territories.These people were not even controlled by the British Crown, they were merely traders, they were able to have a military and rule the whole of India.
In 1858, Indian soldiers that joined EIC's armies in India realized that the grease that was used in guns was made of pig fat. This was very offensive for both muslims as well as Hindus that served in the army because they were made to bite the gun's trigger to reload. So soldiers refused to use the guns angering their English overlords. Some of the soldiers were shot to teach the rest of the soldiers a lesson. But it just had the opposite effect and soldiers started revolting against the British all over the country. This was called the "Sepoy Mutiny". This caused many thousands of soldiers to lose their lives and eventually the rebellion was put down. When the British crown heard about it, they were outraged that so much life was lost and dissolved the trading company and absorbed the assets and territories of the company to the crown. After the mutiny, India became under the control of the British Crown.
In terms of coinage history...... Coins were issued by the three presidencies and the coins had to be understood by locals who spoke many different languages in different presidencies. Back then Madras Presidency had Telugu and Tamil speaking populations so the coins from Madras Presidency had Tamil, Telugu, English and Arabic on it(because India was ruled by many Mughal rulers and people were used to arabic coinage), whereas Bengal had coins with Bengali/english and arabic on it. You get the idea... These coins were called Presidency series coinageWhen the British started ruling over India, they directly controlled some areas that fell into the ambit of the presidencies and some were indirectly controlled by them as "British Protectrate states". Some kingdoms made pacts and treaties with the British that gave them special status and they were allowed to mint coins. These coins came to be known as Princely States CoinageWhen the British Crown took over, they started having a uniform coinage all over India otherwise called as "Imperial Coinage"
there were also different issues from states such as kutch until the 1930's as well as the imperial coinage.
Thanks brokencompass for that thorough history, good reading! That wasn't a typo, the denomination is a "pice". =)
Thanks Thanks to all those that replied, and for the great history lesson. Now, if this coin were only worth a million or two. Oh, well, its from the 1800's, so its pretty old no matter what its value, it has value to me....Regards, Bill
hahah! You are welcome! This looks like what is called "Sikka Paisa". It has its value "One Pai Sikka" written in Bengali, Hindi and Persian which were the three major languages of the Bengal presidency which spanned mainly present day west bengal and Bangladesh. One the other side is written "In the 37th year of emperor Shah Alam" Based on the diameter and weight of the coin, the year of the coin may be determined. As far as I know, there is no year mentioned on the coin. Here are some nicer specimens of this coin http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/opa...ng_=OB="1 Pai Sikka" and AG='Coins and Medals' Here is a discussion that has a lot of information about this particular coin http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php?topic=5792.0 Hope this helps...
