The Puddester Collection (Part II)

The Uniform Coinage of India, British Imperial Period, George VI, cupro-nickel lozenge-shaped 2 Annas, 1946, type II, Calcutta or Lahore, crowned bust left, short trefoils in crown, george vi king emperor, rev. 2 annas above india and date, rendu anālu do aane bē ānā du'i ānā around, all within double quatrefoil, raised diamond or ‘pyramis’ directly above right side vertical of second n in annas, edge plain, 5.79g/12h (Pridmore, SNC October 1977, pp.420-1 and fig. 4, this coin; Prid. 910 [Sale, lot 182, this coin]; SW 9.138, “not certain this exists. Recorded from Pridmore”; KM. 542). Obverse extremely fine, reverse nearly so, scarce £40-£50

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

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Collection

F. Pridmore Collection, Part III, Glendining Auction (London), 17 October 1983, lot 182 (part) [acquired 1954], ticket
Sir John Wheeler Collection, Baldwin Auction 22 (London), 2 May 2000, lot 318 (part).

Owner’s envelope.

Despite an ostensibly large mintage of cupro-nickel 2 annas, annas and half-annas at Lahore in 1946, coins that have been attributed to that mint by Pridmore (SNC October 1977, pp.419-21), on account of the fact that they have a relief diamond or ‘pyramis’ on the surface of one or both sides, have proved decidedly difficult to locate. In 2015 Dinyar Madon (JONS 225, pp.36-9) illustrated a selection of such pieces and discounted Pridmore’s original theory on the basis that these marks are also found on coins that can be conclusively proved to be products of the mints at Bombay and Calcutta. The real purpose of the marks, an artefact of the minting process, was exposed by Henk Groenendijk in 2016 (JONS 227, p.31)