The Puddester Collection (Part I)

East India Company, Bombay Presidency, Malabar Coast, Mangalore, R. Dawson & Co, copper token, r. dawson & co mangalore malabar coast in four lines, rev. standing figure within wreath, a rifle slung over his shoulder, holding an upended axe on the top of a tree-trunk, 26mm, 4.84g/12h (Prid. 339 [Sale, lot 564]; cf. R.J. Ford II, 518). Extremely fine and dark-toned, very rare [certified and graded NGC MS 62 BN] £400-£500

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

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Collection

R.J. Ford Collection, Bowers & Merena Auction (Baltimore, MD), 12-14 November 1998, lot 3577.

Owner’s ticket.

Although the cataloguer has been unable to locate any information about the issuer other than in the footnote to lot 564 in the Pridmore sale, these tokens are known to exist in two sizes (19 and 26mm). It is thought that the larger token was issued to men and the smaller to women; an alternative suggestion is that the larger token was issued to supervisors or maistries and the smaller to workers. Mangalore itself, after annexation in 1799, became part of the Madras presidency, but as the token names the Malabar Coast and most of the Malabar Coast series was catalogued by Pridmore under the Bombay presidency, it has been retained here. The style of manufacture would suggest an issue date of c. 1860