The author, who was posted as Surgeon Captain in the Indian Medical Service, Bengal Army, in his leisure hours during the years spent on duty at the courts of Udaipur and Bikaner, devoted his attention to the subject of coinage in the native states of Rajputana. The number of local coins circulating in the Rajput states was very large, almost the collection of a century. The coins were fashioned in a crude way with a hammer and anvil and had plain unmilled edges. Stamping was carried out in a similarly rough manner - one workman holding the piece of metal between two dyes, while another workman with a blow from a heavy hammer completed the coin. Gold, silver and copper coins were minted. Some of these mints were later closed down due to an order of the British Indian government in 1870. However, some rupee coins were given permission to continue. The book covers the history of the coins of Mewar, Dungarpur, Marwar, Jhalawar, Alwar, Bharatpur, etc.
In my leisure time, during the years spent on duty at the Courts of Udaipur and Bikaner, I devoted my attention to the subject of the coinage in the Native States of Rajputana. The information (derived from personal observation, from the study of my unique collection of coins of the Province, from correspondence with brother-officers serving under the Indian Foreign Office, and with many friends among the Princes and the officials at their Courts) I have during my furlough embodied into the following work, which I now venture to offer to Government as, perhaps, a more perfect representation of the questions involved than is at present possessed, and in the hope that a further consideration of the points to which I have endeavoured to call attention may be productive of good to the inhabitants of the large tract of country, the circulating mediums of which are here considered. I may add that the country in which the coins here treated of are circulating, has an area of about 126,000 square miles. In 1891 it had a population of nearly 12,000,000, and at the present rate of exchange the revenues of its Princes alone amount to over two millions sterling.
It must be evident to those who consider the matter that the subjects of the Native Princes are at present labouring under great disadvantages in regard to the currency question, when compared with the people of India who are living directly under the rule of the Queen-Empress. The following Table shows the present state of the coinage in the Hindu Princedoms of Rajputana. It will be seen that there are now circulating no less than 12 gold muhrs of different values (besides fractional gold pieces), 6 of which are now being yearly issued; 59 rupees (in most cases fractional coins to correspond), most of which are of different worths, and 16 of which are now being issued every year; and 41 different copper coins, of which 16 are struck each year, or almost every year.
The average yearly amount of issue for five recent years in the Marwar State is as follows:- of gold-muhrs, 19,757; of rupees, 311,427; and of copper coins, 175,455. These numbers for one of the richer States will allow of some idea being formed of the yearly issue of coin in Rajputana; for supposing that a proportional amount to its income be coined by each State, then the yearly issue of rupees alone amounts to considerably over two millions. The amount of local coin circulating in the Rajput States is very large, and is, in most cases, the collection of a century or longer. I have been unable to discover that at present any systems exist for the recall of light coin. In many States coins of great age are still accepted in payment.
The coins of the Native States are fashioned in a rude way with the hammer and anvil, and have plain, unmilled edges, Stamping is carried out in a similarly rough manner - one workman holding the piece of metal between the two dies, whilst a second, with a blow from a heavy hammer, completes the coin. With very few exceptions, the coins bear only portions of the inscriptions carried by the dies.
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