Research and Interpretation
Indian coinage takes up a phenomenal portion of the Krause listings, so it’s nice to have someone qualified put it all down in a less weighty format. And that’s what Graeme Stephens and Walter Bloom have done with “Description of the silver rupees of India as used in the early Australian colonies” (Perth Numismatic Journal v53 no2 May, 2021).
East India Co
It’s helped me to establish that the kind of official start of British India is around 1835, when the East India Company introduced a standard rupee coin, in the process voiding all previous issues ( of which there were many! ).
The Company rupee came in two types made in several issues, one showing ‘William IV, 1835’ (pictured) and the other ‘Victoria, 1840’.
It looks like these are the last of the types of Indian rupee you could have expected to see in use in Australia; certainly the type following never was seen down under…
Interesting stuff!
Happy Collecting!
pre1946silver.com 