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The Tea Estate Tokens of British India - a brief summary

Started by gollada, September 09, 2021, 05:52:36 AM

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gollada

Hi All,

I recently acquired an interesting British India tea Token Mule that led me on a journey to find out more about the Tea Garden Tokens and the parallel economy that existed in the Tea Estates. 

That's the beauty of coin collection. it makes us research and learn more about our history.  I found some interesting facts that I wasn't aware of and wanted to share it with everyone.

Some of you may already know this. Please share any additional information or details you know and feel free to correct any inaccuracies.

You can see the Mule token here (see 'Coin 4')http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php?topic=25772.0


Why did the Tea Estates/Garden issue Tokens?

The climate and working conditions were harsh in the Tea estates. The migrant coolies (workers) were not used to the hot and humid conditions of Assam.  Often the coolies would run away.  To discourage this, payments were made in Tokens that could only be used within the estate to purchase food and other essentials. The tokens could only be encashed (traded for actual money) at the end of the month. The coolies would now have to work for at least a month before they could take their money and leave.

The tea coolies were paid daily. The amount due for the day's attendance was made at the start of the shift the next day. This encouraged daily attendance. Receiving daily wages also allowed the tea coolies to keep a count of their total earnings to date.

Token Denominations:

The tokens were issued in Pie/Pice/Anna denominations.
While denomination was printed on most tokens, several tokens didn't have denominations printed on them.  The shape & size of the token and sometimes the shape of the holes (circular, star, heart etc) on the token represented the denomination.  The tea estate workers knew the denomination associated with a token based on its shape and size.

Some tokens also had 1, ½ and ¼ printed on them to reflect the attendance (Hazree) or the portion of day's work done. Full attendance/hazree token was equivalent to the then prevailing full daily wage while half and quarter were equivalent to the half or quarter of the daily wage.


Regards,
Gollada

Figleaf

Very interesting, gollada. I was hoping you could add some pictures. I have a list of tokens from Ceylon as listed by Pridmore and they include tea plantation tokens (see picture of a typical 4½d pence token with a tea bush), but I wasn't aware of Indian tea estate tokens. I'd be happy to see some of them.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

malj1

There is a catalogue of Indian tokens here however it won't work for me today.

Click on tokens and it takes you there, scroll down to tea/coffee tokens , click on this to get a blank page!
Malcolm
Have a look at  my tokens and my banknotes.

malj1

I do have his book Collectors Guide to Indian Canteen Tokens.  Praful Thakkar
Malcolm
Have a look at  my tokens and my banknotes.

malj1

There is also a nice book on Sugar Estates

As emissoes da Sona Sugar Estates em Mozambiique by Jaime Salgado
Malcolm
Have a look at  my tokens and my banknotes.

Alex Island

Quote from: malj1 on September 12, 2021, 06:29:29 AM
There is a catalogue of Indian tokens here however it won't work for me today.

Click on tokens and it takes you there, scroll down to tea/coffee tokens , click on this to get a blank page!

It's interesting, all the pages on that site don't open and show nothing. Is it temporary or is the site down?  ???
All islands around the world & islands coin