East India Company Laws
GOLD AND SILVER COINAGE ACT
ACT NO. XVII. OF 1835
(Rep., by Act. 23 of 1870)
[17th August, 1835.]
Passed by the Hon’ble the Governor General of India in Council on the 17th August, 1835.
I. BE it enacted, that from the First 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 follows:—
11/12 or 165 Grains of pure Silver,
1/12 or 15 ,, of Alloy,
and the other Coins shall be of proportionate weight and of the same standard.
II. And be it enacted, that these Coins shall bear on the obverse the head and the 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 Embellishment 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 a 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 Rupees respectively, shall be received as equivalent to the Half and Double of the abovementioned Bombay, Madras, Furruckabad and Sonat Rupees, and to the Half and Double of Fifteen-sixteenths of the Calcutta Sicca Rupee.
V. And be it enacted, that the Company’s Quarter Rupee shall be a Legal Tender only in payment of the fraction of a Rupee.
VI. Provided, that if in any contract for the payment of Calcutta Sicca Rupees it shall have been specially stipulated that if payment be made in the Terrritories of the Madras, Bombay, or Agra Presidency, it shall be made in the Rupees now current in those Presidencies respectively, at a different rate from that above provided with reference to the Calcutta Sicca Rupee, the contract shall be satisfied by payment within those Presidencies of Company’s Rupees of the amount of Furruckabad, Madras, or Bombay Rupees so especially stipulated:– Provided also, that if payment of the Principal or Interest of the Public Debt be made for the convience of Creditors at any Public Treasury other than as stipulated in the Notes and Engagement of the Government, it shall be competent to the Government to make such payments at the same exchange as heretofore.
VII. And be it enacted, that the under mentioned Gold Coins only shall henceforth be coined at the Mists within the Territories of the East India Company.
First. A Gold Mohur or Fifteen Rupee Piece of the weight of 180 Grains Troy, and of the Following Standard, viz.
11/12 or 165 Grains of pure Gold.
1/12 or 15 ,, of Alloy,
Second. A Five Rupee Piece equal to a Third of Gold Mohur.
Third. A Ten Rupee Piece equal to Two-thirds of a Gold Mohur.
Fourth. A Thirty Rupee Piece or Double Gold Mohur—and the three last mentioned Coins shall be of the same standard with the Gold Mohur and of proportionate weight.
VIII. And be it enacted, that these Gold 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 Embellishment as shall from time to time be ordered by the Governor General in Council, which shall always be different from that of the Silver Coinage.
IX. And be it enacted, that no Gold Coin shall hereceforward be in Legal Tender of Payment in any of the Territories of the East India Company.
X. And be it enacted, that it shall be competent to the Governor General in Council in his Executive capacity, to direct the coining and issuing of all Coins authorized by this Acts to prescribe the devices and inscriptions establish, regulate, and abolish Mints, any Law hitherto in force to the contrary notwithstanding.