Mumbai Coin Society - Annual Fair MCS 2021

Started by asm, October 02, 2021, 11:24:06 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

asm

Finally after a long wait and a lot of yes and no's, the Mumbai Coin Society went head with its annual coin Show, held this year after missing the previous year due to the pandemic.
Till the last moment, there were a lot of reservations - whether, Mumbai, with the history of an extremely bad hit from the pandemic is safe and whether the authorities will permit the show to go ahead in view of restrictions still in place. However, finally the show happened.
The crowds were to be seen to be believed............ they had to restrict entry in view of the limitation on the number of guests permitted at a time. The organisers had to request those who had moved through the fair to leave the hall to make way for those waiting .....
I was invited to exhibit a part of my collection and after dilly dallying and pondering over whether I should go or not, I decided to take the risk. I cut short my visit to just the three days of the fair - reaching Mumbai on the morning of the show and leaving by Sunday evening.

Attached below are the pictures of the four frames that I had exhibited. I will soon add the pictures of the individual sheets that comprised the exhibit.

For those who are interested in the details, I had done a write up on these coins earlier.

Amit
"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"

asm

Part of the 1st frame
"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"

asm

Frame 1 Cont....
"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"

asm

#3
Frame 2
"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"

Figleaf

Looking forward to the rest, Amit. Great to see your knowledge displayed, so that so many can profit from it. May many be inspired by your example.

Nevertheless, given the state of the vaccination campaign in India, wouldn't it be an idea to get tested?

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

asm

Quote from: Figleaf on October 02, 2021, 12:46:39 PM
Looking forward to the rest, Amit. Great to see your knowledge displayed, so that so many can profit from it. May many be inspired by your example.
Peter
Thank you Peter, for the compliments. I display at these fairs only so as to encourage more collectors............That is my joy.... my way of giving back to the society.

Quote from: Figleaf on October 02, 2021, 12:46:39 PM
Nevertheless, given the state of the vaccination campaign in India, wouldn't it be an idea to get tested?
I'd better not reply to this one.........All I'll say is that the incubation period for the willy virus is 7 days and that period has passed.

Amit
"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"

asm

Last slide of frame 2 and start of frame 3
"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"

asm

#7
Balance for frame 3.............. and the start of frame 4
"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"

asm

....and now the last........
"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"

asm

Disclaimer: While most of these coins form a part of my collection, some of the coins included in the presentation, especially the Gold Mohurs are not in my collection. The images of these coins have been taken from various sources and have been acknowledged. I have also used a couple of images of coins that I own but whose pictures were not of top quality from various sources, especially ZENO. The presentation is for educational purposes only.

Amit
"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"

Figleaf

 :applause: :applause:

I presume the public loved the gold, but my favourite part is the copper fractions of Bahadur Khan (Slide23.JPG). They speak of common people, colourful markets, little boys on an errand, but also of a patient collector with an eye for quality and a mind set that goes beyond rulers and their toys.

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

asm

Quote from: Figleaf on October 03, 2021, 10:23:15 AM
:applause: :applause:
I presume the public loved the gold, but my favourite part is the copper fractions of Bahadur Khan (Slide23.JPG). They speak of common people, colourful markets, little boys on an errand, but also of a patient collector with an eye for quality and a mind set that goes beyond rulers and their toys.
Peter
That is what is the BIG question ..... Why was there no copper since the inception of the mint around AH 1049 till the reign of Muhammad Shah (AH 1130's) - a period of almost 80 years. Even later, we again find that copper disappears...... This is a matter that needs investigation........... In fact the mint was mainly a Silver mint - Gold was minted during the reign of Aurangzeb (appears to have been a very short lived issue). The later golds are all just commemorative issues.

Amit
"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"

Figleaf

The usual reason for copper coins to disappear is a mis-pricing of copper. If the price of 10 units of copper is the same as 1 unit of silver, a copper coin denominated 1 unit should weigh 1/100th of a silver 10 unit coin. If the copper coin is heavier, it pays to melt all copper coins. The same happens when the copper/silver price relation is different in the country in question and on the open market. To research whether this happened in India, you need long period statistics on the price of copper in terms of silver.

Much less often, copper coins were in short supply because they had low prestige. Silver coins would typically be struck in the best equipped mints by the best staff, while copper got only what was left over when silver coinage had been fully served or copper coining was farmed out to under-equipped private minters. Though there were specialised copper mints in India, I think that was mainly because they were located close to copper mines.

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

asm

Peter, what you say makes sense and is seen in different regimes. However, for this State in particular, we find that the early rulers did in fact mint both Silver as well as copper and both - though scarce, are found. However, for the IPS Junagadh, copper does not exist except for just one ruler. If, indeed, as you mention, the price ratio of copper and silver went against copper, the copper minted at the time of Bahadur Shah II would not have survived and also, at least a few samples (examples) of coins minted during the reign of the earlier as well as the later monarchs would have surfaced.......... this has not happened.Copper was also not minted during the full reign of Bahadur Shah II (in fact, neither was silver). Copper coins were minted for a brief period of about 10 / 15 years (I'll need to refer to the exact dates but roughly AH 1248 - 1255 or 58).

Another question for the academics to unravel. Economists too can put their heads to help.

Amit

PS: A point to be noted is the fact that even the minting of silver was sporadic and Koris and 1/2 Koris too were minted intermittently.
"It Is Better To Light A Candle Than To Curse The Darkness"

Figleaf

It is not necessary for the copper and silver coins to be minted in the same Princely state or country. All you need is regular commercial relations.

Real life example. In China, the price relation of silver to gold (both commodities, rather than money in China) was determined by the emperor - i.e. the civil servants in charge of financing and the economy. They picked easy relations, like 1:10, so one candareen of gold would be worth the same as 10 candareens of silver in China. The rates usually undervalued gold and overvalued silver in world market terms. The VOC took advantage of the administrative prices by buying gold and paying in silver. VOC profits were close to scandalous and it took well over 100 years before the Chinese found out. The point is that China had neither gold nor silver coins They did have silver bars, the sycee, a commodity, but accepted Dutch silver coins. A chinese middle man could have sold Dutch silver for gold and become very rich also. It is likely that some Chinese metal traders figured this out at least at some time. Meanwhile, China was impoverished and weakened to a very large extent.

It doesn't matter for arbitration if a particular princely state or even the whole country minted or did not mint in any metal. The transaction is a metal trade and could be in coin or unminted metal.

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