BI Mint Differentiation

Started by Hitesh, September 18, 2017, 06:21:50 PM

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Hitesh

Two questions:
1. How to differentiate between bombay and calcutta for a two annas from 1912? (KM512)
2. In KM547, 1/4 rupee, 1944B Reverse B - would there be a reverse B presennt instead of the dot usually present in Bombay mint coins?

Thanks in advance!
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FosseWay

1. AFAIK that issue is similar to many other BI issues: Calcutta issues have no mintmark and Bombay have a dot (in this case at the bottom of the reverse under the bottom flower).

Below is my 1912(b). I don't have 1912(c) but the 1915 coin below is AFAIK the same in all particulars other than the date.

FosseWay

2. No, my understanding of the info at the start of the George VI ¼ rupee series in KM is that "reverse B" has nothing to do with B as in Bombay but is rather simply the next in line after "reverse A", which is unhelpfully not referred to. To muddy the waters further, for some reason KM 547 uses a capital B without brackets to denote Bombay issues (apart from 1945!). The convention elsewhere in KM (not just India) is that a capital letter without brackets actually appears as such on the coin, whereas a lower-case abbreviation in brackets means some other feature that can be attributed to the given mint, such as the dot, diamond and star of Republic coins from Noida, Mumbai and Hyderabad, and the (a) mark for French issues and others which invariably means a cornucopia.

Anyway, AFAIK Bombay issues of KM 547 of 1945 have the usual dot at the base of the reverse (similar to the 2 annas above). 1943(b) and 1944(b) coins that aren't "Reverse B" are the same (see below). The note at the start of the series reads:

Quote from: KM (29th edition)Bombay coins have a small bead below the lotus flower at the bottom on the reverse, except those dated 1943-1944 with Reverse B which have a diamond.

I take that to mean that Reverse B coins have a mark more similar to the Mumbai mark on Republic coins.

Heaven only knows why KM chose to label this variant "Reverse B" when the letter B was already in use for something else and when elsewhere in the BI series (Victoria mostly) the obverses are identified by letter and the reverses by roman numerals.

Hitesh

Got it! Thank you so much for the detailed response! It really helped.
I received a lot of 5 two anna coins and surprisingly all of them were from the Calcutta mint so thought I might have been getting something wrong here.
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FosseWay

Quote from: Hitesh on September 18, 2017, 08:45:22 PM
I received a lot of 5 two anna coins and surprisingly all of them were from the Calcutta mint....

Yeah, sometimes that happens! I once bought a job lot of 20 or 30 George V 1/12 annas and they were all Calcutta, even though the issue in general does contain a good number of very common Bombay dates.