Summary

1 Rupee, Issued by East India Company, India, 1835
Minted by Calcutta, India

F raised on truncation

Obverse Description

Bare head of the King facing right; around, 'WILLIAM IIII, KING.'; raised on neck truncation, 'F'.

Reverse Description

At the centre within an olive wreath, ONE / RUPEE / a line in Persian script (Yek Rupiya; translation: One Rupee); around, EAST INDIA COMPANY 1835.

Edge Description

Milled (Vertical)

Significance

The letter F on the neck truncation relates to the Master of the Calcutta Mint, Lt.-Col. William Forbes. Forbs was the Master of the mint from 5 Jan. 1836 until 23 Jan. 1855. Coins bearing the head of William IIII bearing this mark were struck between 1836 and 1840 (when the coinage of Queen Victoria began). The date on the coins, 1835, is a frozen date (see below)
Legislation:
A.D. 1835 Act XVII
PASSED by the Honourable the Governor-General of India in Council on 17th August 1845
I. BE it enacted, that from the 1st day of September, 1835, the undermentioned silver coins only shall be coined at the mints within the territories of the East-India Company: a rupee, to be denominated the Company's rupee; a half-rupee , a quarter-rupee and a double rupee; and the weight of the said rupee shall be 180 grains troy and the standard shall be as followes: 11/12 or 165 grains pure silver 1/12 or 15 grains of alloy.

II And be it enacted, that these coins shall bear on the obverse the head and name of the reigning sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and on the reverse the designation of the coin in English and Persian and the words "East-India Company" in English, with such enbellishments as shall from time to time be ordered by the Governor-General in Council.

III. And be it enacted, that the Company's rupee, half-rupee and double rupee, shall be legal tender in satisfaction of all engagements provided the coin shall not have lost more than two per cent in weight, and provided it shall not have been clipped, or filed, or have been defaced otherwise than by use.

IV. And be it enacted that the said rupee shall be received as equivalent to the Bombay, Madras, Furruckabad and Sonat rupees, and to fifteen-sixteenths of the Calcutta sicca rupee, and the half and double rupee respectively ....

V. And be it enacted, that the Company's quarter-rupee shall be a legel tender only in payment of the fraction of a rupee.
etc.

A.D. 1837. Act XXXI
PASSED by the Honourable President of the Council of India in Council on 20th November 1837.

I. It is hereby enacted, that so much of Act. No. XVII. of 1835, as directs that certain coins issued from mints within the territories of the East-India Company, shall bear on the obverse the head of the reigning sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britiain and Ireland, shall be suspended, till the Governor-General of India in Council shall, by an Order of Council, declare those parts of the said Act to be again in force.

II. And it is hereby enacted, that till the said Governor-General in Council shall make such an Order in Council as in aforesaid, the said coins shall bear on their obverses the head of his late Majesty, William the Fourth.

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