India 1953(c) 1/4 rupee
This specimen was lot 919 in Stephen Album sale 41 (Santa Rosa, CA, September 2021), where it sold for $6,600. The catalog description[1] noted, "INDIA: Republic, ¼ rupee, 1953(c), a wonderful quality prooflike example! PCGS graded MS64. Very likely a proof only or pattern date issue, apparently unpublished, and of supreme rarity. This is only the second example of this date that we have handled." No Indian coins exist dated 1948-49, 1947 dated coins being used instead. When Nehru withdrew from the British Commonwealth and declared India a republic in 1950, new coins were issued, including this quarter rupee from the Bombay mint (sixteen annas = one rupee). The coinage was decimalized in 1957 and this denomination replaced by the 25 paisa.
Recorded mintage: unknown but few.
Specification: 2.50 g, nickel, 19 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: KM-5.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 41, featuring the Dick Nanta Collection of Giray Khans, Part II, the Charles Opitz Collection of Ethnographic Money, Part II, and the Allan F. Pacela Collection of Chinese Coins. Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2021.
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