2018-05-10 Thu

Coins can bring you a fortune! Here’s one such exquisite coin along with its history for you:

The gold mohurs of Queen Victoria bearing her image and frozen date of 1841 were struck from the matrix dye for the 1/2 Rupee coin at the Calcutta Mint. After the dyes sent from London failed to produce satisfactory results. The reverse of this coin beautifully depicts a lion walking in front of a palm tree with the words ‘East India Company’, ‘One Mohur’ and a line in Persian script translating to ‘yek Ashrafi’ below. The special feature of this gold mohur is the incuse of letter ‘S’ on the Queen’s neck truncation referring to the Madras Mint Master J.T. Smith. This coin is not very scarce, yet the special mintage feature makes the value knock your socks off!

In 2016, one such gold mohur was sold by the Todywalla Auction House for INR 3,50,000 which is equivalent to $52000! So start hunting through your grandpa’s coin collection. You might get lucky. But beware, phoney coins do exist.

Image Courtesy: Todywalla Auctions