Elephant coins of Mysore

Have a look at these magnificent coins from the Independent kingdom of Mysore. All the following coins belong to the ruler Tipu Sultan, nick named tiger. I just got these coins from couple of auctions.. I got 12 types of such coins...

 

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I like them :thumb: unfortunatly dont have very many Non British Indian in my collection mainly as I have trouble reading them LOL

De Orc

 

These are verey nice coins indeed !!

I've only got two ephelunt coppers from Mysore. My others are the Sardula type.

One of them is an undated Raja Wodeyar XX cash coin (1811-33) KM 177. The other I would really appreciate some help with. Although its definitely a Mysore coin its not within the scope of my catalogues for some reason or another. Thumbnails below:

 

can you post the picture of the unidentified one?

 

The thumbnails I posted in my last post are of the one I can't identify. If you click on them they should enlarge. The one I have already identified as KM177 is below:

 

Ian, I think you're quite lucky... Thats a rare coin as per the catalogue...

 

This coin also belongs to Tipu Sultan..

 

Thanks for that.

I couldn't see the wood for the trees (or differentiate one elephant from another in this case). I've now located it in my copy of Krause. The good news and the bad news:......the good news : finding out that its a scarcer coin ......the bad news: its probably only worth about $5 in that condition. To be honest, I'm just happy finally getting a date for it.

I've just finished loading a few East India Company coppers of mine onto omnicoin along with a couple from Tranquebar and French India (Pondicherry and Mahe). Unfortunately (and unusually), that site has been up and down like a yoyo this past 24 hrs or so. Have a look at them when you can (and the site allows you) and let me know what you think so far.

I've had a quick look at your site. It looks like an epic in the making and i'm sure i'll be referring to it much more in the future.

 

Biju,any coin issued after 1799 by Mysore is a British Commonwealth issue.The first issues under British suzeranty were issued during the regency of Dewan Purnaiya (1799-1810),who was ruling the state on behalf of Maharajah Krishnaraja Wodeyar (who ruled in his own right from 1810-68).The last Mysorean coins were issued during the 1840's.After that,the Maharajahs of Mysore would have decided to stop issuing their own coins,but allow the British Indian coins to circulate there.

Even after 1799,there were a lot of elephant & tiger coins being issued.Some of them are bilingually inscribed in English & Kanarese.The AH & AD dates are used on these coins,unlike the pre-1799 issues,which used AH & AM (Mauludi Year) dates.

Aidan.

 

Same here. cant read them so dont buy them

 

Krause doesn't even show a picture for a lot of Indian Princely States' coins.Apart from this,their descriptions are extremely vague,which is why a lot of people from outside India are put off collecting this series,which is a real shame.

Aidan.

 

True... but its not going to be easy to identify each and every coins from India.. There are hundreds of coins which are still unidentified and there is no source for identifying these coins which makes it even more difficult.. But the bright spot is that there are a lot of guys now a days trying hard to unveil the secrets of these coins..

 

Biju,that is where the numismatic community in India can help.With your website,we can also help shed some more light on these mysterious coins,& hopefully get the people at Krause Publications to see the error of their ways.

Aidan.

 

Aidan, I'm trying to collect as many pictures as possible... I hope I can publish something substantially in a couple of weeks...

 

Biju,I'd be more than happy to let you know which Indian Princely States issued their own banknotes & postal orders.Yes,there were Indian Princely States that issued their own postal orders,& yes,they are numismatic items.

Have you thought about arranging your listings in a similar way as in Krause with the dates in both the local calendar(s) & the AD calendar?

Aidan.

 

Aidan, I'm finding it extremely difficult to find even the Princely state coins... and to add the banknotes also is unimaginable as far as I'm concerned.. The prices are not as cheap as I thought before for quality coins..

 

Aidan, Tipu Sultan was extremely anti-British and gave huge head aches to the colonial forces here. He was defeated and killed in the final Sreerangapatanam War in 1799 against the Britishers. There after, the British forces took control..

 

Biju,here's an article about the Tiger of Mysore; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipu_Sultan .

Aidan.

 

Biju, some nice looking copper coins of Tipu Sultan. I am sure you got them from some reliable sources or auction firms.

You didn't mentioned anything regarding weight or size of each of these coins. Is there any double paisa in this group? The double paisa coins of Tipu Sultan are famous for being counterfeited (Some 3 years ago few of those counterfeit double paisa appeared in some famous auction catalogs in US which were withdrawn later).

One thing I find strange is that all coins are dated AH1216 (except last coin on which there is no date). It may be pure coincidence that all coins you posted are of this date, but is memory serves, the other counterfeited double paisas were also dated AH1216. I will check this later and will let you know.

I would suggest that you weight/measure each of these coins and if they are within acceptable limits for those denominations. You just have to make sure that you are getting what you paid for.

Regards
Ballabh Garg

 

And I always thought that postal orders are philatelic items and not numismatic items.

Regards
Ballabh Garg