Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c9.53.2

c9.53.2

For in regard to certain temple coins struck in the Pudukottah State we are distinctly told by him that four such are given by the Rajah of Pudukottah to each recipient of his rice-dole, distributed in honour of the festival of Dusserah. It, therefore, stands uncontroverted that the prerogative of coinage belongs to the state. This does not, however, mean that the state did not sometimes permit private individuals or firms to coin money, whether of the higher or lower denominations. Of course, in modern times we have instances of both these kinds. Thus about Central India at the beginning of the nineteenth century Sir John Malcolm tells us that the work of coining was vested in no particular body or individuals, and that any banker or merchant sufficiently conversant in the business, had merely to apply to Government, presenting a trifling acknowledgment and engaging to produce coin of the regulated standard, and pay the proper fees on its being assayed and permitted to pass current. This must refer to coins of higher value.¹ Similarly, as V. A. Smith informs us, “to this day the people of Bihar and Gorakhpur prefer the unauthorised ‘dumpy pice’ made at private mints in Nepal to the lawful copper coinage of the British Government.”² This, of course, must refer to the token coinage issued by private agencies to supply the gaps which State issues leave unfilled and thus facilitate small transactions.