The Puddester Collection (Part I)

East India Company, Bengal Presidency, European Minting, Soho, bronzed-copper Pattern Pie, 1809, unsigned [by J. Phillp], Company arms, ausp : regis & senat : angliæ [By the authority of the King and Parliament of England] on ribbon, date below, rev. yek pai sikka [one pai sikka] around ek pai sikka/ek pai sikka [one pai sikka], borders of small beads, edge plain, 27.5mm, 7.73g/3h (Prid. 384 [Sale, lot 691]; Stevens 10.9; KM. Pn23). Trifling spots, otherwise virtually as struck, very rare [certified and graded NGC PF 64 BN] £900-£1,200

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

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Collection

R.J. Ford (Detroit, MI) Collection
SNC (London) November 1979 (10412), ticket.

Owner’s ticket.

Joseph Thompson, a senior official with the Company in London who worked with Robert Wissett, contacted Soho in 1809 with a view to having a new copper coinage struck for Bengal, but for a number of possible reasons that are not fully clear (doubtless the Company’s ire at Soho striking 22 excess tons of copper for Madras the previous summer being one of them) the issue was not proceeded with. The series of pattern coins in this and the following lots were the last coins made by Soho for the Indian subcontinent