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
graded PR62; ½-Rupee, rev type I, worker pouring metal in foundry (without structure behind), graded PR64; ½-Rupee, rev type II, worker pouring metal in foundry (with structure behind), graded PR64; ¼-Rupee, rev mine worker holding pick in a mine, graded PR64; 2-Annas, rev type I, with side view of peacock, graded PR64 2-Annas, rev type II, with facing peacock, graded PR65; Anna, rev standing water buffalo, graded PR63; Pice, rev sheaves of wheat, graded PR64RB. All with obv Lion Capital of Asoka, together with English and Hindi legends (formerly listed by Krause as patterns, KM Pn5-12, now listed as Pn8-15). All in PCGS holders and graded. A highly important and excessively rare complete set of eight patterns. Only four sets are recorded as having been struck. (8) 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 initial Pakistani pattern coinage, comprising two different designs of Rupee coins, was the first to be completed. These patterns, prepared at Lahore by the Mint Master (and former Calcutta Mint Master) Mr Bernard Sinclair-Jones, were literally prepared in the days immediately after partition by a man of vision whose achievements among others included flying the first airplane in India. During 1946 in India rupee coinage in nickel had been introduced, this comprising the ½- and ¼-Rupee struck in that year, as well as in 1947 a 1-Rupee coinage, together with additional ½- and ¼-Rupees of a similar design being struck again with the 1947 date. The initial coinage of approximately 460 million pieces apparently sufficed until 1950 when new designs were introduced. However in 1949 a fine pattern coinage was prepared by artist/engraver Patrick Brindley. It is not known to the cataloguer whether final dies were actually prepared for these patterns, or whether the master matrices were used to strike the coins. Engraver Brindley explained to William Barrett in Ottawa, Canada, during the 1970s that for various reasons each of the 1949 patterns was rejected, leading to other designs introduced in the following year. Though all the 1949 pieces are vastly more appealing than the coins issued in 1950, for one reason or another -- mostly political -- each was rejected. For example, the bird of paradise was considered to pertain to Burma, and the water buffalo to be native to what had become Pakistan. 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
