Baldwin's Auctions 70-72 - Post-Sale Highlights Baldwin’s put on a spectacularly diverse event during the Coinex season. Three days of auctions were packed full of interesting collections and single items from around the world and included an afte
dated 1833, graded PR66RB; Copper Pie, dated 1833, graded PR66RB This Six-piece set of Proof Strikings is exceedingly rare and historically important. According to Major Fred Pridmore’s catalogue of East India Company coinage, Bombay was the last of the three presidency mints to adopt machinery, Madras and Bengal having done so many years earlier. Construction of the new mint began in 1824 and was completed in 1829. Despite the existence of a large 1828 medal commemorating the opening of the mint, the first coins, ¼-Anna (KM 231; Pr 205) were not struck until November 1830, followed by the Pie (KM 230; P. 210) in 1831. A few proofs of a ½-Anna dated 1832 were made in 1833 for examination by the mint committee, but the design (KM250; Pr 204) was never adopted for circulation. Silver coinage at the mint began with the rupee denomination in a slightly revised design, these struck from dies prepared at the Bombay mint, in the second half of 1832. The half and quarter rupees must have been struck shortly afterwards, as they are mentioned in a proclamation of 17 October 1832 quoted by Pridmore. The dates of the silver coins in this set are meaningless. The design was copied from an earlier coin. The date AH1215 corresponds to 1800-1801 AD. Regnal year 46, referring to Emperor Shah Alam (ruled 1759-1806), was a fixed regnal year on coins produced under British control. It was supposed to refer to the year 1800, but Shah Alam’s 46th year was actually 1803. The British had miscalculated the date. Dies for a redesigned copper coinage were prepared at the Calcutta Mint and sent to the Bombay Mint in February 1834. Pridmore quotes from a remarkable document which records the names of the engravers for each denomination: “On the 7th February 1834 the Calcutta mint master reported completion [of the new dies] to the Calcutta mint committee and detailed the difficulties experienced. He also records by name the persons responsible for the various denominations: Half Anna - Mr. Delacombe. European map engraver. A Calcutta resident and not connected with the Mint; Quarter Anna - Cossinauth (Kasinath Dass). Native note plate engraver of the General Treasury and subsequently appointed engraver to the Calcutta Mint; Pie (or 1/12 Anna) - Hurrie Mohun Roy. Native seal engraver of the General Treasury. Hurrie also engraved two matrices for the scales of the half and the quarter anna as the originals executed by Delacombe and Cossinauth gave way in multiplying…. Coins struck from these Calcutta matrices and dies are dated ½ Anna 1834; ¼ and 1/12 Anna 1833.” Concerning the matrices for the scales, a close examination of the copper proofs in the set offered here shows three different kinds of rope used to suspend the pan in the scales. Note that the 1833 copper coins could not have been made before 1834 when the dies were delivered. Also note that the AH and AD dates do not always agree. The Bombay Mint continued to strike
