Dear All, I'm trying to work out some historic exchange rates and relate them to the coins in use. I'll take 1907 as a sample year. In East Africa the British colonies were using the Indian rupee and I am assuming this was the same rupee that circulated in India, ie, a silver one rupee coin was approximately 11.5g (I know, they varied from year to year but the difference is not significant for the purposes of my question), .917 silver, so a silver content of 10.5g. In nearby Comoros, the French franc was in use. The silver one franc coin at the time weighed 5.00g, and was .835 silver, so had a silver content of 4.175g. Therefore, based on the value of silver, one rupee would have been worth 2.5 Francs (near enough). However, in the French archives and in official publications, the French government's exchange rate (for 1907) was cited as Rs 1 = Frs 1.67. This is not an error, I have years of exchange rates, and although they fluctuated a little, it was of the order, 1899, Rs1=1.70, 1905, Rs1=Fr 1.68, etc. It's never anywhere near 2.5. Can anyone explain this? If I'd been there, I'd have been queueing up to get the French government to change all my francs into rupees Many thanks.
I do not know if this would apply to Indian rupees, but this postcard shows the values of German East Africa rupees around that time. There might be a similar postcard for Indian rupees.
My guess is, if you'd queued up to change your francs into rupees, the French colonial authorities would have had you shot as a suspected spy.
I will try.... Indian monetary system was based on Silver standards, but for government transactions and for currency exchanges purposes, "gold exchange standard" was defined in 1882 and followed during British period. The Herschell Committee in 1882 specified that the Government Treasuries would receive sovereigns and half-sovereigns of current weight in payment of public dues at the rate of 15 rupees and 7 rupees 8 annas respectively. Later, the same committee issued another notification, No. 2662, which I am copying as is - "The Governor-General in Council hereby announces that, until further orders, gold coins and gold bullion will be received by the Mint Masters of the Calcutta and Bombay Mints respectively, in exchange for Government rupees, at the rate of 7.53344 grains. troy of fine gold for one rupee" With these details, one can calculate the official exchange rate between rupee and franc. So, A gold 20 franc coin has 0.1867 oz of gold. 20 francs = 0.1867 oz of gold = 0.1867 * 480 grains of gold = 89.616 grains of gold = 89.616 / 7.53344 Rupees = 11.8957 Rupees OR 1 Rupee = 20 / 11.8957 Francs = 1.6812 Francs The fluctuation you have noticed was because of fluctuation in money exchangers commission in different part of the world. Regards, Ballabh Garg
You wish... However in reality, most of the governmet exchange rates were one directional ONLY. So, the government mints were allowed to give-out silver for your gold but not the other way. If you had silver francs, you had to go to a money exchanger on the street who will take your 2.5 (or more) francs to give you one rupee as he is using the scale at this desk and not the government defined exchange rate. Regards, Ballabh Garg
