The Puddester Collection (Part I)

East India Company, Bengal Presidency, Benares Mint: Third phase, copper Pattern Trisul Pice in the name of ‘Shah ‘Alam II (1173-1221h/1759-1806), 1228h, frozen yr 49 [1813], unsigned, fulus shah alam [money of Shah ‘Alam], fish and trident symbols, rev. zarb benares sanah 49 [struck at Benares in year 49], edge plain, 22mm, 6.49g/4h (Prid. – [not in Sale]; Stevens 7.185a, this coin illustrated; Stevens website image 1761c, this coin; Stevens, JONS 212, p.30, this coin; KM. –). A few trifling marks on obverse, otherwise practically as struck with most attractive red-brown patina, of the highest rarity, believed unique and one of the most significant coins in the entire Bengal Presidency series £4,000-£6,000

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

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P.J.E. Stevens Collection, Part III, Stephen Album Auction 25 (Santa Rosa, CA), 19-21 May 2016, lot 1404 [acquired from eBay], when certified by NGC incorrectly as a Half-Pice and graded MS 62 BN, tag.

Owner’s ticket.

Literature:
Illustrated in Paul Stevens, The Coins of the Bengal Presidency, p.363
Illustrated in Paul Stevens, ‘A new pattern pice from the Benares mint’, JONS 212, Summer 2012, p.30
Illustrated in Paul Stevens, The Coins of the English East India Company, Presidency Series: A Catalogue and Pricelist, p.119.

Dr Yeld’s continued arguments in favour of striking a copper coinage at Benares from Calcutta-prepared blanks that the local population would accept continued long after the 1809 regulation authorising the striking of more copper coins at Calcutta which, the Calcutta mint committee thought, based on information supplied from Benares, were not needed. The old dump pice, last coined in 1807, remained the circulating medium as the 1807-9 coins from Calcutta were chiefly traded by the shroffs to Bihar, Patna and the lower provinces. Eventually, Yeld’s agitating resulted in minting machinery being sent from Calcutta to Benares, and it was used to strike what is presumed were a tiny number of double-pice and pice without darogah marks, which were sent by Yeld to the Board of Commissioners on 4 November 1813