Madras 1748 10 cash
The first specimen was lot 2599 in Stephen Album sale 50 (Santa Rosa, CA, September 2024), where it sold for $240. The catalog description[1] noted, "MADRAS PRESIDENCY: AE ten cash (Dudu), 1748, balemark with GCE within decorative border // date between wavy lines; struck at the Fort St. David mint during the French occupation of Madras, VF-XF, R, ex Solar Collection." The second specimen was lot 2704 in Steve Album Auction 55 (Santa Rosa, CA, May 2026), where it sold for $288. The catalog description[2] noted, "FRENCH INDIA: French Occupation of Madras, 1746-1749, AE dudu, 1748, struck at the Fort St. David mint; with the GCE balemark (British!) on the obverse, date on reverse, bold VF. Struck between the French capture of Madras in September 1746 and the return to British rule by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in January 1749." This type was struck intermittently 1693-95, 1702-09, 1716-26, 1739-44 and 1748. 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: 8.21-8.35 g, copper, 17 mm diameter, the first specimen 8.52 g, the second specimen 8.39 g.
Catalog reference: Stv-5.4, KM-291, Prid-41.
- 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 50, featuring selections from the Dr. Robert A. Rosenfeld Collection, the Hakim Hamidi Collection, the Almer H. Orr III Collection and the Solar Collection, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2024.
- [2]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.
Links to: