Madras (1807) 1/2 pagoda
This specimen was lot 31838 in Heritage sale 3067 (Long Beach, September 2018), where it sold for $2,640. The catalog description[1] noted, "British India. Madras Presidency 1/2 Pagoda ND (1807) XF45 NGC, Madras mint. Variety with 15 stars to either side of Pagoda. An appealing example of the type, which was often struck on large plugs made from Spanish and Spanish Colonial 8 Reales. The undertype, not always visible, is here revealed giving just a slight hint as to the piece's origin, with the 'H', likely from 'HISPANIA', just faintly visible near the edge of the reverse." The larger half pagodas attract attention from Latin American collectors as they were made from cut down Spanish colonial portrait dollars. The Madras mint, a facility of the British East India Company, minted pagodas, half pagodas and quarter pagodas under license from the Mughal emperor since the seventeenth century. This is the first milled type. The assets of the East India Company were transferred to the British government after the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and the mint was closed in 1869.
Recorded mintage: 501,000.
Specification: 21.17 g, 0.896 fine silver, 36.5 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: KM344, Pr-153.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- Stevens, Paul, The Coins of the English East India Company, Presidency Series: A Catalogue and Pricelist. London, Spink & Son Ltd, 2017.
- [1]Cristiano Bierrenbach, Warren Tucker and Sam Spiegel, 2018 September 6-11 Long Beach Expo World Coins & Ancient Coins Signature Auction #3067, Dallas: Heritage Auction Galleries, 2018.
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