Madras 1769 10 cash
This specimen was lot 2308 in Steve Album Auction 54 (Santa Rosa, CA, January 2026), where it sold for $110. The catalog description[1] noted, "MADRAS PRESIDENCY: AE dudu (10 cash), 1769, East India Company balemark // date between 2 wavy lines, VF, ex F. Pridmore Collection." This type was struck intermittently 1755-1805 with many dates noted as "Requires Confirmation." 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, this specimen 6.55 g.
Catalog reference: Stv-1.52, Prid-50, KM 306.
- 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 Hanbing Feng, Auction 54, featuring selections from the Kenneth A. Bovenkamp Collection of Ottoman Coins, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2025.
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