The Puddester Collection

Foreword

My particular interest in the coins of the East India Company dates back to 1975, when I started to amass information about, and photographs of, the series of coins known colloquially today as Portcullis Money. An early ally in my research was Frederick Renad Cooper (1902–85), known in the London trade as ‘Mini’ Cooper on account of his short stature. A former chartered accountant at ICI with the means to pursue a passion for coins in the best possible condition, Cooper formed several collections, principally of English crowns, which he parted with under various pseudonyms during the 1970s. Almost naturally, one might say, he acquired the very best Portcullis dollar known (then and now, and one of no less than five specimens in his cabinet), which has had a mere 15 owners since James Dodsley Cuff in 1854 and is now, happily, in a prominent UK collection. When I had finished cataloguing the last of these groups, sold on 8 November 1978, he gave me his notes on Portcullis dollars, saying “you might as well have these. The Portcullis coins should be studied as a whole, not as one denomination in isolation.” The work is still ongoing...

That date, 8 November 1978, was to become an important one for my business relationship with a new client – Bob Puddester. Already with a keen eye for a nice coin and attracted by the vast potential of material from the Asian sub-continent, Bob wrote in to ask what we had in stock. Tentatively, I shared with him the page proof of the section of Indian coins I had listed for the December 1978 Numismatic Circular – mostly common but featuring a couple of E.I.C. rarities. To my surprise and delight, he picked out the star item – Robert Gordon’s pattern mohur of 1828 – and I knew then that the firm had acquired a new and important customer.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, of course, there were many more British Colonial coins in the trays of dealers, whether in London or elsewhere. Dealers were the main source of material and it was to us that those wishing to part with elements of their collections came. Relatively few of us were in any way specialists in the field, a remark I remember Randy Weir sharing with me 40 years ago. I learnt at the feet of colleagues, including André de Clermont and Mark Rasmussen, and from customers such as Fred Pridmore, Dick Ford, Hillel Kaslove, Ken Wiggins, Jerry Remick, Mark Freehill, Peter Snartt, Prof. Joseph Chatt and others. Tasked with providing regular lists of British Colonial coins for the Circular, Bob quickly became my best customer for the E.I.C. series. As he relates in his Foreword, the coins that were available then had, for the most part, left India many decades previously and even the much-travelled Fred Pridmore had not had the opportunity to scour the bazaars in Delhi and elsewhere for rare dates.

The three Pridmore sales were, and remain, landmark events, never to be forgotten by those who were there in person. For the last decades of his life Pridmore’s major interest was the Indian series and he enjoyed happy relationships with the London triumvirate of Baldwin, Seaby and Spink. For the first sale with Indian coins Bob gave me instructions and limits, but often with the caveats TH (Try Hard), TVH (Try Very Hard) and GET, which was self-explanatory. Happily, in the end I managed to secure almost 80% of what he wanted, including two of the four Bombay anglinas and numerous patterns and proofs from the various post-1800 series. Other ex-Pridmore coins, including the unique 1674 anglina, were acquired at later dates.

It was difficult to comprehend the true scope of the Pridmore collection at the time it was sold, and it is only with the benefit of hindsight and reflecting on what was included within the cabinets of E.I.C. coins put together by Sir John Wheeler and David Fore, to name but two important collections dispersed by auction since, that one can recognize what Pridmore achieved. Tackling the coinage of the three presidencies and the post-1835 uniform coinage in his two-volume standard work, published in 1975 and 1980, Pridmore’s ordering of the various series has been questioned by some later authors who also, justifiably, criticized him for not quoting sufficient references for his various statements. However, Bob has always been a disciple of Pridmore’s work, and for this reason the Puddester collection has been catalogued following the Pridmore order of numbering, with a few exceptions.

Moving to India in 1983 meant that Bob could now enjoy the best of both worlds: access to local markets and bazaars as well as the international coin markets of Europe, North America and, increasingly with the influence of Spink and Baldwin and their then auction partners, the Far East and Australia. I retain fond memories of a 3-week road trip that Bob, Norma, my then girlfriend and I made in a vast Australian Ford Falcon station-wagon in the autumn of 1985, starting in Delhi and taking in Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Bikanir and much else besides. Sat navs and better roads mean that such a trip would be an easy undertaking now, but 40 years ago roads that were only signed in Hindi, were paved if you were lucky and ‘owned’ by truck and bus drivers who gave way to nothing and nobody meant that the Falcon was returned to the diplomatic car pool with a few more scrapes on the bodywork than it started with. Of course, the trip yielded further coins for the Puddester collections, for by now Norma had joined Bob in haggling for Sikh issues in the various towns we passed through.

With the passage of time and the increasing trend for collections of British Colonial coins to be dispersed via the saleroom, Bob was ideally placed to take advantage of the opportunities offered, whether they be in London, Singapore, Sydney or anywhere else in between. The cabinets of Lawrence Brilliant (1991), Colin Pitchfork (1995), Sir John Wheeler (2000), Ken Wiggins (2001), Robert Climpson (2007), David Fore (2013) and Paul Stevens (2016) provided further opportunities to enhance a collection which by then already included the great rarities in the Bombay series once owned by Virgil Brand, Dick Ford and the Wolfson Trust, marketed in a series of sales in the mid-1980s and never before owned by a single collector. Like me, Bob has always attached great importance to provenance, which is why his coins are being sold not just with the tickets of their previous owners, but also with tickets in his hand and, where relevant, cards from his personal index system, which include much pertinent information.

It has been an honour for me to relive a long professional and personal relationship with Bob while cataloguing his unrivalled collection of E.I.C. coins. This is the first of a historic series of auctions that will be references in their own right for decades to come. Those who acquire Puddester coins, whether from this or subsequent sales, will own pieces to be rightly proud of, in the knowledge that they rank among the finest, if not the best known. Take the opportunity now – many pieces in this collection only appear in the marketplace once in a generation, if that. Take the same initiative that Bob did and, like him and their previous owners, you will have some wonderful and historic coins to enjoy.
P.J.P-M.