Madras 1737 cash
This specimen was lot 2304 in Steve Album Auction 54 (Santa Rosa, CA, January 2026), where it sold for $80. The catalog description[1] noted, "MADRAS PRESIDENCY: AE cash, 1737, East India Company issue with balemark, VF. Soon after its creation, the United East India Company began to use a 'balemark', which identified its products as they arrived in busy ports or were sold on the trading floor. Initially a simple mark, this evolved by the 1700s into a heart shaped figure (denoting 'good luck') surmounted by a figure four (symbolizing Agnus Dei - 'Lamb of God') and containing the initials of the company, VEIC with the letter 'U' Latinized. This symbol became known as "the chop" a word derived from the Hindi word 'chap' - which means stamp. From the late 17th century to the early 19th century the exchange rate was; 80 cash equalling 1 fanam with 36 fanams equalling 1 pagoda." This type was struck 1730-39, 1748 and 1752. The 1737 is noted for having the "E" and the "I" reversed. 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: 1.2 g, copper, 8-10 mm diameter, this specimen 1.22 g.
Catalog reference: KM-302.
- 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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