Baldwin's London Auction 71 Baldwin's London auction 71 offers a spectacular array of Indian, Islamic and Latin-American coinage. Including the Yashoda Singh Collection of Indian Coins and the Alan Harley Collection of Latin Ame
under the title: “The Introduction of Machine-Struck Coinage in the State of Hyderabad.” When the Imperial mint at Madras was closed in 1869, its machinery was sold to the state of Hyderabad. The equipment does not appear to have been used, possibly because the ruler of Hyderabad at the time was a minor. He came of age in 1301 (1883) and an investiture ceremony followed. Lot 1472, the 1301 Rupee in silver, is believed to have been struck as a presentation piece for this ceremony. The copper piece was not known to Lingen. New machinery was supplied by the Heaton Mint in Birmingham, England as early as 1891 and again during 1893-1894. The AH1312 coinage appears to be mostly experimental productions using the new Heaton equipment.
Lot 1489 is the first of three major pieces in the sale. The 1834 East India Company, Bombay Presidency, VIP Proof Set from the Bombay Mint comprises three silver and three copper coins and was possibly struck to mark the first complete coinage in 1834 by the new Bombay Mint, or in 1835 for the end of local Presidency coinage. This lot is estimate at £25,000-50,000. Lot 1529, an Edward VII, 1904 unique VIP presentation proof set in it’s official case contains eight coins and the set is previously unrecorded and totally unique, estimate: £80,000-120,000. The final piece, lot 1609, a 1949 Republic of India Pattern set by Patrick Brindley was a set for an entirely new proposed coinage for the new republic. This is a highly important and excessively rare set of eight pattern coins, only four sets in total are recorded as having been struck. Estimate £100,000-150,000.
No coins were struck for circulation dated 1948 or 1949. However a distinct new series of designs were, required due to partition and Independence. After partition in July of 1947 and the achievement of Independence by both India as well as the newly-created Pakistan, both countries thought to create new and distinctive coinages. The Spink Numismatic Circular of 1954 reports that only four sets of these charming patterns were struck. A complete set in a custom case was contained in the Barrett collection during the 1980s. This set included a ticket making reference to the 1954 Spink statement that only four sets had been struck and priced in 1954 at the then substantial value of £100. The occasional single coin has surfaced in past years, suggesting that at least one of the four sets has been broken up.
The Alan Harley collection of Countermarked Latin American coins forms the next part of the sale and comprises 194 lots. Alan Harley began collecting this series in the late 1970’s when his interest was sparked by the Gilt Dragon (Vergulde Draeke) wreck cobs in Perth, Australia where he was working as a hydrologist. Examples from nearly all of the major shipwrecks are included among the countermarks with the largest section being Indonesian. This makes a change from the usual Caribbean collections and is probably the largest offering
