Madras (17)39 5 cash
This specimen was lot 2758 in Steve Album Auction 51 (Santa Rosa, CA, January 2025), where it sold for $312. The catalog description[1] noted, "MADRAS PRESIDENCY: AE 5 cash (1/2 dudu) (17)39, East India Company balemark // date; light porosity, still very attractive with clear date, VF, ex Solar Collection." This is probably an unlisted date of KM 305, which is known for 1755, 177, 1784 and 1786. The date on this example could be 1739 or 1789. 1739 is listed for KM 291 (1 dudu/10 cash), a very similar coin. The Madras mint, a facility of the British East India Company, minted cash under license from the Mughal emperor since the seventeenth century. The mint's struggles to produce enough coinage led the directors to place a contract with Boulton and Watt in England in 1794 for 1/96 and 1/48 rupees, which constituted the first milled coinage for India.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 4.43 g, copper, this specimen 2.82 g.
Catalog reference: KM-unlisted, Stv-1.80, Prid-74.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- Stevens, Paul, The Coins of the English East India Company, Presidency Series: A Catalogue and Pricelist. London, Spink & Son Ltd, 2017.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 51, featuring the Howard Daniel III Collection of Asian Coins, the Almer H. Orr III Collection of World Coins and the Joe Sedillot Collection of German Coins, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2024.
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