Arcot (1750)/3 rupee
This specimen was lot 2698 in Steve Album Auction 55 (Santa Rosa, CA, May 2026), where it sold for $100. The catalog description[1] noted, "FRENCH INDIA: AR rupee , Arkat, year 3, struck in the name of Ahmad Shah Bahadur, PCGS graded MS62." This rupee is listed in the SCWC for 1161-1167 without regnal date and is rather scarce. This example has a bold regnal date but no trace of a calendar date. The French established a number of trading stations on the coast of India in the seventeenth century and made a serious challenge to British claims of supremacy in the eighteenth century. After a close run campaign fought during the Seven Years War, British command of the sea told and the French were defeated. Their zone of control was reduced to the trading stations they had long held, including Pondichery. Both the French and the British issued imitations of Arcot rupees.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 11.5 g, silver, this specimen 11.49 g.
Catalog reference: KM-8, Lec-99.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Hanbing Feng, Auction 55, featuring Selections from the Swamperbob Gurney Collection of Cap & Ray 8 Reales, the Kenneth A. Bovenkamp Collection of Ottoman Coins and the 1914 Collection of World Coins, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2026.
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