East India Company, Bengal Presidency, partly machine-struck silver Rupee.

East India Company, Bengal Presidency, Calcutta Mint, naming Murshidabad, 19 Sun Sicca coinage, partly machine-struck silver Rupee in the name of 'Shah 'Alam II (1173-1221h/1759-1806), AH 12[05], frozen regnal year 19 [1790-1], sikka zad bar haft kishwar saya fazl ilah hami din muhammad shah alam badshah [defender of the religion of Muhammad, Shah 'Alam emperor, shadow of the divine favour, put his stamp on the seven climes], rev. zarb murshidabad sanah 19 julus maimanat manus [struck at Murshidabad in the 19th year of his reign of tranquil prosperity], edge plain, 12h (Prid. 147 Stevens 2.181; cf. Fore III, 1823; cf. Puddester I, 650 these dies; KM 86). PCGS AU58 designated AH1202 and KM 84.2 erroneously.

Shroffs employed a system whereby coins with the previous year's date were exchanged at a lower rate on the basis that some of the metal content may have worn away - and the exchange rate got progressively worse for earlier dates. This happened whether a coin was worn or not and was considered grossly unfair. The first effort to counter this practice saw the East India Company striking coins with a fixed regnal year, 19, and this started in what Pridmore calls "a silent operation" in 1777. Nevertheless, hammered coins with high relief and irregular edges were still prone to filing and clipping so the practice of discounting coins continued, and it was only with the introduction of machine-struck coins with milled edges and low relief inscriptions that the shroffs' unfair exchange rates were finally halted. While trying to perfect a fully machine-struck coinage, from 1791 to 1793 the company experimented with partially machine-struck Rupees. The present coin is a very well preserved example of those experimental, prototype, partly machine-struck coins.