Modern Hyderabad (Deccan)/Chapter 17
CHAPTER XVII.
The Mint.
The State Mint was moved in 1904 from Hyderabad city to the suburb of Saifabad, and since that time it had seen many important developments.
In 1853, when Sir Salar Jung I began his currency reforms, there was practically no State money. No less than 26 mints coined money at that time, and three rupees — the Bagh Chalni, the Shahr Chami, and the Hukm Chalni — were then in circulation and each had a different weight and different value. At that time no less than fifty varieties of silver coins were used in the State, to say nothing of copper coins.
The standard of silver currency introduced by the Delhi rulers was nine of silver and two of alloy, and the name of the King of Delhi was on Hyderabad coins until 1858 (the year after the Mutiny). But the standard was much debased in the private mints, and as the rupees were all hand-made, they could be easily manufactured in the city bazaars. The British Residents constantly protested against the debasement of the currency, which caused the greatest inconvenience to them in obtaining reliable rupees for the payment of the troops and for the monetary transactions of the Residency, and they made constant but unsuccessful attempts to persuade the Nizam to close the private mints in the State and make the East India Company's rupee the sole legal currency. In 1851 Captain Meadows Taylor wrote, "The wretched system of coinage in the Nizam's country, and the indisputable necessity of placing the department on a better footing have been strongly urged by me on Siraj-ul-Mulk, who has promised to give such immediate attention to the subject as its importance deserves."
In 1855 Sir Salar Jung I established a State Bank in Hyderabad city and introduced a silver currency called the Halli Sicca rupee, and this currency, like that of the Delhi rulers, contained nine of silver and two of alloy. The progress of the Halli Sicca rupee was slow, but in 1863 Sir Salar Jung said that the new system of coinage had answered "fairly well," and in 1868 the Government of India adopted the Halli Sicca as the rupee for Hyderabad and fixed the official rate of exchange between it and the British Government rupee at Rs. 16-14-6.
In 1894 a rupee with a milled edge was manufactured by machinery and at that time the Char Minar pattern of rupee was introduced, and with this pattern the present currency of the State is minted.
In 1905, Sir George Casson Walker moved the State Mint to Saifabad, and brought out from England up-to-date machinery for it, some of which has lately been used to open up an Electricity Department. Ever since 1905, silver and copper coins have been minted, and the silver and copper coinage for 1321 Fasli (1911-1912 A.D.) was as follows : —
Rupees . . . . 72,39,461
Eight anna silver coins . . 2
Four anna " " .. 2
Two anna " " .. 2
Half anna copper coins . . 9,53,002
Two pie „ „ 2,59,88,200
One pie „ " 2
Gold coins are now used only for presentation purposes. And there is in the State no paper money. Salaries and wages are paid in O. S. rupees, and the consequences of this sort of payment are sometimes amusing. For instance, I was calling one day at a house where a government servant resided, and I was surprised to see him stagger into the room with a large bag in each hand. Asked what made him bend and sway, he replied "My salary", and he poured on to the carpet a load of O. S. rupees that would eventually go to the local branch of the Bank of Bengal and be placed there to his credit.
The official rate of exchange between the Hyderabad rupee and the British Government rupee varies to-day between 16 and 20; and the official standard in 1,000 O. S. rupees is 818.1 pure silver and the rest alloy.
Into the intricacies of the copper coinage I will not enter, for the ghandas and dubs that are the delight of servants, I found to be in the districts a great nuisance. Thus if a railway ticket was a little more than a rupee, I received from 80 to 90 small copper coins, and the servant and the ticket babu then began to quarrel over the rate of exchange and the number of dubs that I ought to have. Only in Hyderabad City and Secunderabad can a railway ticket be taken in British Government money, and at the small stations it is difficult and sometimes impossible to change B. G. rupees into O. S. rupees. As to a B. G. ten-rupee note, they look at it with suspicion in the districts, and the sowcars there say : — "I have no use for it."
The Stamp Department.
This Department is under the care of the Mint Master, and in it postage stamps . stamped envelopes and postcards, summons, receipt and hundi stamps and stamp paper are made. The Government made by this department during 1321 Fasli (1911-1912 a.d.) a profit of Rs. 8,17,221. There is an Inspector-General of Registration and Stamps, and the Government surplus from the Registration Department in 1321 Fasli (1911-1912 a.d.), was Rs. 43,595.
Weights and Measures Department.
This Department has only recently come into existence, and the primary standards and the necessary fine balances and appliances for the accurate manufacture and checking of weights and measures have not yet arrived from London. The work undertaken in this department will be the manufacture of standard weights for checking the weights and measures used throughout Dominions, and the manufacture of weights and measures for use by the public.
The Electricity Department.
This Department, which is still in its infancy, owes its inception to Mr. R. Loraine Gamlen, the energetic Mint Master. He found that the power of the engines provided by Sir George Casson Walker for the purposes of minting was in excess of the requirements, and he obtained from His Highness's government sanction to start an electric supply for the neighbourhood, using the surplus power available in the Mint for driving the electric machinery. First, the King Koti Palace and the Residency were lighted by electricity; and then, when the Viceroy visited Hyderabad in September 1913, the Falaknama Palace, the Bund and the City were lighted in the same way. More machinery has been bought, and, at the present time, the Mint Master is in England, perfecting the arrangements of the Electricity Department.