Coins of British India
Early settlements or factories included Masulipatnam (1611) and Madras (1640) in the south, Surat (1612) in the west, and modern-day Kolkata (1698–99) in the east.
Most of the north, however, for a long time continued to remain under the control of the Mughal emperor, and later, local rulers including the Marathas and Rajputs.
Each of the three presidencies under East India Company governance issued their own coins until a unified coinage throughout all territories was introduced in 1835.
In 1717, the EIC obtained rights to strike coins in the name of the Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar on the island of Bombay.
The major mints in the west responsible for issuing coins for the East India Company included Surat, Bombay (Mumbai or Munbai), and Ahmadabad.
From 1621 till 1800, the English sent their precious metal bullion to the Surat mint, controlled by the Nawab, to be coined into local gold mohurs and silver rupees.
During later years, the Ahmadabad mint also struck rupees for the Bombay Presidency in the name of Muhammad Akbar II with the dates 1233–1241 AH (1817–1825 CE).
In December 1672, the East India Company started a mint in Bombay and European style gold, silver, copper, and tin coins were struck.
The obverse of the silver and copper coins showed inside an inner circle the arms of the Company, and within an outer circle the legend HON:SOC:ANG:IND:ORI, for Honorabilis Societas Anglicana Indiarum Orientalium, or Honourable English East India Company.
The reverse of these coins had the inscription MON BOMBAY ANGLIC REGIMS A° 7° in the centre and another legend A DEO PAX & INCREMENTVM around it.
Gold mohurs, silver rupees, and fractional values were struck in the name of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II bearing the frozen regnal year 46.
[3] A number of privy marks consisting of dots, crescents, and crown-like symbols were used and are helpful in correct attribution of the striking period and mint.
In 1690 Job Charnock of the British East India Company established a trading post near what became Fort William (in present-day Kolkata).
The system of coinage values used (which eventually[12] became an Indian standard until decimalisation on 1 April 1957) used the ratios: The Bengal Residency government ordered the coining of sikka rupees from 1793 for use as legal tender.
Currency and proof issues of the 1862 dated rupee coins have a number of different obverse and reverse die varieties, which are helpful in identification of the mint.
During the World War II, Subhas Chandra Bose led Indian National Army (INA) seized Mizoram, Manipur and parts of Nagaland from the colonial British control with the help of Japanese forces, British Indian rupee and coins were banned and Japanese rupee (1942–44) was introduced.
