Madras 1786 5 cash
This specimen was lot 960 in Stephen Album sale 47 (Santa Rosa, CA, September 2023), where it sold for $288. The catalog description[1] noted, "MADRAS PRESIDENCY: AE 5 cash (half dudu), 1786, GCE balemark // date divided in two lines; rare in this quality, choice VF, ex Puddester Collection." This type was struck 1755, 1777, 1784 and 1786. Numista states this coin was worth 1/672 of a pagoda. 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: 4.13 g, copper, this specimen 3.08 g.
Catalog reference: KM 305, Stv-1.93, Prid-83.
- 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 47, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2023.
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