The Puddester Collection (Part II)

The Uniform Coinage of India, British Imperial Period, George VI, bronze Pice (7), 1945 [1944-5] (5), type C, Calcutta, 1 pice india aek paisa in Hindi and Urdu around central hole, flat crown above, date below, revs. scroll-like wreath of vine leaves, edges plain, 2.02g, 1.96g, 1.93g, 1.92g, 1.88g (Prid. 696 [Sale, lot 169]; SW 9.245; KM. 533); 1947 (2), type B, Calcutta, similar but high crown, edges plain, 1.96g, 1.94g (Prid. 697 [Sale, lot 169]; SW 9.250; KM. 533) [7]. Sixth brilliant mint state, third and last very fine, others extremely fine and better, with considerable original colour £30-£40

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

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Three owner’s envelopes.

In the wake of advances by the Japanese and the need for economy in metal stocks during 1942, the Indian government authorised the issue of a new pice (quarter-anna) with a large central hole. The first of these coins, struck at Bombay, entered circulation on 1 February 1943; later that same year a concurrent issue, struck at the Pretoria mint in South Africa and with trifling differences in the design, was authorised. Between 1943 and 1947 a total of 1.46 billion pice were struck by the four active mints, Bombay, Calcutta, Lahore and Pretoria, a phenomenal modern coinage for the time. Pretoria had also been engaged to strike silver coins, but 60 tons of silver bars being transported from Bombay to South Africa on the SS Tilawa was lost when the vessel was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on 23 November 1942, with the loss of 280 lives. The silver bars, recovered in 2017, were claimed by the South African government under ‘sovereign’ rights