India, Bombay, Duncan, Stratton & Co, bronze coining trial or proving piece by Greenwood & Batley, Leeds, g & b monogram, rev. tiger, 30mm, 10.76g (Bullmore, SNC 1979, p.439, no. 5). Very fine £80-100

Provenance: Croydon Coin Auction, 7 January 2003, lot 825 (part).

The Leeds firm of Greenwood & Batley, founded in 1856, supplied coining presses and associated machinery to a number of foreign mints. In February 1905 their agents in India, Duncan, Stratton & Co of Bombay, ordered six coining presses at £275 each on behalf of H.H. The Nizam of Hyderabad’s mint. These were delivered in February 1906. The proving pieces struck from the new machinery were ostensibly to the size and weight of the rupee, half, quarter and eighth-rupee denominations; this is to the rupee size