Travels in India (Tavernier) 6.1.2

6.1.2

Gold and silver pay 2 per cent, and as soon as they have been counted at the custom-house the Mintmaster comes to take them, and coins them into money of the country, which he hands over to you, in proportion to the amount and standard of your silver. You settle with him, according to the nature of the amount, a day when he is to give the new coins, and for as many days as he delays to do so beyond the term agreed upon he pays interest in proportion to the silver which he has received. The Indians are cunning and exacting in reference to coin and payments ; for when money has been coined for three or four years it has to lose 1/2 per cent, and it continues in the same proportion according to age, not being able, they say, to pass through so many hands without some diminution. You may carry all sorts of silver into the Empire of the Great Mogul, because there is a mint in each of the frontier towns, where it has to be refined to the highest standard, as is all the gold and silver in India, by order of the King, and it is coined into money of the country. Bar silver, or old silver plate which has been bought without payment for the workmanship, is that which has the least to lose, for on coined silver one cannot avoid the loss on coinage. Sales are in general conditional on payment being made in money coined during the current year ; and if one pays in old pieces it is necessary to submit to loss, according to the time they have been coined, as I have said above.