The Uniform Coinage of India, East India Company: Patterns, William IV, original silver Pattern Rupee, 1834 [March 1835], type 3, Calcutta, unsigned [by K. Dass and after J. Flaxman], lion walking left, palm-tree behind, rev. lotus flower above one rupee and date, all within laurel wreath with 38 berries, east india company above, ek rupiya, yek rupiya, ek rupiya below, wavy line circumferential border, edge plain, 31mm, 11.73g/6h (Prid. 171 [Sale, lot 55]; SW 1.23; KM. Pn3; cf. Fore II, 788). Tiny reverse rim nick between 12 and 1 o’clock, otherwise brilliant and virtually as struck, attractively toned, extremely rare as an original Pattern £8,000-£10,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Puddester Collection.

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Collection

Wolfson Trust Collection, Sotheby Auction (London), 13 February 1986, lot 319
With Baldwin (London)
Sir John Wheeler Collection, Baldwin Auction 22 (London), 2 May 2000, lot 191 [from Spink (London) February 1986]

Owner’s ticket, envelope and record card.

Following Bentinck’s wish to see designs incorporating other devices (see footnote to previous lot), sketches were submitted for his approval on 2 January 1835. These included the head of the monarch with the simple legend ‘William III King’ (see next lot), and Flaxman’s lion and palm. Bentinck favoured using the latter for the obverse of the new rupee, coupled with the reverse approved the previous October. Dies were completed in March 1835 and Robert Saunders submitted specimens to the Mint Committee on 25 March; these were then forwarded to the new acting Governor-General, Sir Charles Metcalfe (1785-1846), on 31 March. Comparing these with rupees bearing the head of William IV, Metcalfe and his Mint Committee overturned Bentinck’s opinion on the suitability of the lion and palm for the obverse and instead requested that it be utilised as the reverse of a proposed new gold double-mohur (see Lot 1)