Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 1210. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, British India. British East India Company. Bengal Presidency. 1651-1835. AR Rupee (11.60 g, 9h). Calcutta mint. Dated AH [1171]; RY 4 of Alamgir II (1757/8 AD). Persian legend with regnal year and mint / Persian legend with poetical couplet; AH date (off flan), mintmarks star and rosette. Cf. Pridmore 7 (regnal year 4 not listed, but see p. 197-198); KM 8.2. VF, toned. Rare. ($300)

The British East India Company opened a mint in Calcutta on 13th June 1757, having expelled the Nawab of Bengal from the city earlier in the year. From that date until 28th July, extremely rare mohurs and rupees were struck with the mint name Alinagar Kalkatah (Calcutta, the Port of God). At that point the mint name was changed to simply Kalkatah. The rare regnal year 4 rupees, not known but posited by Pridmore, were struck through 28th April 1758. During this period, on the 27 June 1757, Company forces under Clive routed the Nawab at the battle of Plassey, confirming British control over eastern India.