The Uniform Coinage of India, British Imperial Period, Victoria, original silver Pattern Rupee, 1860, Royal Mint, London, by L.C. Wyon, younger crowned and robed bust left, victoria queen, l.c. wyon below truncation, rev. one rupee above india and date, all within scroll-like wreath of Indian flora, edge plain, 11.17g/12h (Prid. 47 [Sale, lot 103]; SW 4.28; KM. Pn26). Brilliant FDC, superbly toned, very sharp rims, exceptionally rare
£12,000-£15,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Puddester Collection.

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Taisei/Baldwin/Gillio Auction 29 (Singapore), 2 September 1999, lot 469, label.

Owner’s envelope.

On 30 June 1859 the Treasury in London authorised the Master of the Royal Mint, Thomas Graham (1805-69), to procure matrices and punches for the new Imperial coinages. He in turn instructed Leonard Wyon, who selected a crowned Gothic-style effigy of the Queen, perhaps drawing on the influence of the numismatist Richard Sainthill (1787-1869), who had favoured using such a portrait on Indian coins as far back as 1846. By the end of 1859 Wyon had penned some designs, including one with a coronetted head (Attwood, p.326), which was not proceeded with. Once the designs for the new coins had been approved Wyon set to work, and by 12 November 1860 a tiny number of pattern rupees had been struck, most of which appear to have been piédforts (cf. Fore II, 803). Two weeks later the new coin received royal approval and Wyon spent much of the first half of 1861 making matrices and puncheons for the different denominations. These were shipped to Calcutta in August 1861 and trial strikes produced, but because the tools did not meet the technical requirements of the local mints new matrices were prepared in Calcutta by using Wyon’s punches and partial re-engraving (Pridmore, p.52). Act XIII, 23 April 1862, authorised the new coinage, which was first issued from Calcutta, Bombay and Madras on 1 November 1862. While Bombay and Calcutta struck coins bearing the frozen date 1862 throughout the period 1862-74, when a more normal dating system was introduced, Madras only remained operational until May 1869; the mint there closed on 14 August and its machinery sold to the state of Hyderabad (Pridmore, p.53)