The Puddester Collection (Part I)

East India Company, Madras Presidency, Reformation 1807-18, a silver Pattern Half-Pagoda, presumably for the second issue, type S/I, nine-tiered Gopuram of a temple flanked by 22 stars at left and 24 stars at right, surrounded by ribbon inscribed half · pagoda ·, nim hun phuli [Half a star pagoda], small letters, square buckle unshaded, top of Gopuram points between o and d of pagoda, rev. Vishnu holding sword, rising from a lotus flower, surrounded by five concentric circles of pellets, single pellet below Vishnu, flanked by 14 pellets on left and 11 pellets on right, legend in Tamil and Telugu, arai pu vara kun · ara pu vara hun [Half a star pagoda], 20.93g/12h (Prid. 172a [not in Sale]; Stevens 3.146; Snartt, SNC September 1976, p.319, no.1, same dies [= SNC April 1980, 3019]; Dav. –; KM. –). Weak area on each side, small scratch on reverse, otherwise fine to very fine with old cabinet toning, exceptionally rare; only three specimens believed known £3,000-£5,000

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

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Collection

SNC (London) October 1980 (8555), ticket.

Owner’s ticket.

Literature:
Peter Snartt, ‘Some unpublished varieties of E.I.C. Madras coins’, SNC September 1976, p.319.

Fred Pridmore considered this new type, first published in 1976, as a pattern or transitional issue, and numbered it 172a as the punctuation on it resembles his 172; others, including the present cataloguer, would logically have ordered it as 168a and it has been placed in sequence as such here. The obverse design is smaller than on the normal coins of the 1808-12 issue, leaving a wide outer margin, and the buckle is square instead of round. On the reverse there are five concentric circles of pellets (as on the 1807-8 coins) instead of the usual three