ABSTRACT
In a despatch to the Court of Directors dated 12 February 1753, it is mentioned that ‘the utmost secrecy was necessary with reference to the establishment of a mint at Calcutta, as any attempt to effect an arrangement with the nawab would be immediately overset by Juggut Sing’. In 1792 a Committee was constituted in Calcutta by order of the Governor-General, Earl Cornwallis, for superintending the mints and enquiring into the general state of the coinage in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. On 14 May 1792, the Mint Master informed the Committee that he had received orders from the Governor-General to establish mints at Patna and Murshidabad, to facilitate the conversion of the various species of silver coins current in the Bengal districts into sicca rupees. In August 1830, the Calcutta Mint Committee submitted specimens of copper pice with a, request that government would sanction their coinage, as they seemed to be preferable to those in circulation at that time.
