The Puddester Collection

The Uniform Coinage of India, British Imperial Period: Princely States, ALWAR, Victoria [Mangal Singh (1874-92)], silver Rupee, type A/1, 1788 (sic), Calcutta, crowned and robed bust left, victoria empress, 3.75 panels in jabot, v on bodice at centre, crescent at point of shoulder, rev. Maharao Raja sawai Mangal Singh bahadur 1788 in centre, one rupee alwar state divided by sheaves of corn, edge grained, 11.69g/12h (Prid. 993 [Sale, lot 186]; Stevens website AL 250; KM. 45; cf. Album 36, 1210 [= Stack’s Bowers HK May 2022, 55299]; cf. Fore III, 1096). Trifling obverse bagmarks, otherwise brilliant mint state, very rare as such; the best specimen known to the cataloguer in private hands £1,500-£2,000

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

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Owner’s ticket and envelope, “Difficult to get in this condition”.

The state of Alwar, in Rajputana, was established in the early part of the 1770s under the rule of Pratap Singh. In the wake of the Indian Mutiny and the death of the then ruler, Bani Singh, his 12-year old son, Sheodan Singh (1845-74) succeeded to the title but the state was ruled by a council of regency until his coming-of-age in 1863. Further internal strife removed Sheodan from power in 1870 and a second ruling council was appointed. British copper coinage was introduced to the state in 1873 and Sheodan died in October 1874 without leaving any descendants. The council, under its president Major Thomas Cadell, VC (1835-1919), appointed 15-year old Mangal Singh (1859-92), who was invested with regal powers in the wake of Victoria becoming Empress of India in 1877. Mangal was the first chief to take advantage of the Native Coinage Act, passed on 28 March 1876, and was advanced to Maharajah on the occasion of Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. He died suddenly in May 1892.

Mangal ordered 200,000 rupees from the Calcutta mint and coining commenced in November 1877, but, due to an error by Johannes Lutz, the Mint engraver, the last three Arabic numerals of the date were wrongly engraved on the master die. Some 150,000 pieces were returned to the Mint for recoinage in succeeding months and it is believed that very few specimens entered circulation