The Amazing Shrinking Coin - The British East India Company Bengal Pice

The British East India Company minted coins under the names of some Mughal emperors, including Shah Alam II who reigned mostly over the city of Delhi from AD 1760 to 1806.
The Company continued to issue some coins after the emperor died in 1806.

The basic coin was the rupee, a silver coin weighing around 12 grams.
One rupee was worth 16 annas or 64 pice or 192 pies.

The Company administrative division known as the Bengal Presidency minted one pice coins from 1795 to 1835 with the diameter shrinking from 28 mm to 22 mm.

These coins were minted in 1795, 1796, 1802, 1809, 1817, 1829 and 1831 and each year the coins were smaller.
Some were minted at the Calcutta Mint and some at other Company mints.

All of them were made of copper and had the same design and inscription:
Obverse: In the year of his reign 37 Shah Alam Emperor (in Persian)
Reverse: One Pie Coin (in Bengali, Persian, and Gujarati)

The British used the same regnal year 37 (1795) on all these coins until 1831.

Here are three examples:


Bengal Presidency Pice, Shah Alam II, Calcutta, No date (1796-1809)
Copper, 28 mm, 7.95 gm


Bengal Presidency Pice, Shah Alam II, Calcutta, No date (1829)
Copper, 26 mm, 6.25 gm


Bengal Presidency Pice, Shah Alam II, Calcutta, No date (1831)
Copper, 23 mm, 6.12 gm

Some of these coins have been found in Canada and America where they circulated in the early 1800's when there was a shortage of small copper change.