The tael of Sycee in the East India Company's accounts is reckoned at 6s. 8d. sterling. When assayed in London, this metal is frequently found to contain a small admixture of gold. Mercantile account sales give the following average out-turn of China bullion remittances to London, Calcutta, and Bombay; that £316, at 5s. an oz. (including 1J per ct. for gold.) 100 taels of Sycee yield 3078 Sa. Rs. or with charges 3062 Rs. at Calcutta. 3335 Bombay Rs. or ditto 3302 Rs. at Bombay. Ava Specie. The Burmese, it is well known, have no coined money, but, like the Chinese, make their payments in the precious metals by weight. Like the latter nation also they make use of decimal divisions in estimating the value or purity of gold and silver, and their systems of weights and measure follow the same convenient scale. We are indebted to Major Burney, Resident at Ava, for the following particulars : Vis, Tikal and Moo are the general terms used in the transactions of commerce and accounts: their subdivisions and multiples are— 1 pe or be. 10 = 4 = 2 = 1 kyat or tikal. 1000 400 200 100 = 1 peiktha or vissom. 100 tikals are precisely equal to 140 tolas. The expressions employed by the goldsmiths in declaring the quality of bullion require a knowledge of the Burmese numerals, and a few other words: Mee, differing + or - current in the place of The usual weight of the small lumps of silver coin is from 20 to 30 tikals (30 or 40 tolas): they bear a variety of names from their quality and appearance, the figures given by the action of the fire upon a thick brown coating of glaze (of the oxydes of lead and antimony) answering in some degree the purpose of a die impression. Ban', signifies "pure" or "touch," and is the purest, obtainable of the Burmese process of refinage. *This word is synonimous with Barmy of the Ayeen Akbery: bunwary is the Indian name of the touch, needles used in roughly valuing the precious metals. Qualities of Silver Bullion. 31. Kharoobat (shelly or spiral circled) is applied to a silver cake, with marks upon its surface, produced by the crystallization of the lead scoria in the process of refinement: it is supposed to denote a particular fineness, which by Burmese law ought to be ten-ninths yowetnee in value, i. e. 9 tikals of kharoobat pass for 10 of yowetnee silver or it should contain 19 ban and f copper. Yowetnee (red-leafed) flower, or star, silver, is so named from the starry appearance of the melted litharge on its surface. Yowet is a corruption of rowek (leaf), and the word is sometimes written by Europeans, rowanee, rouni, roughanee, &c. Yowetnee is the government standard of Ava, and contains by law 85 ban and 15 alloy per cent. Taking it at 9-10ths of the purity of kharoobat, which last is 94.6 touch, its quality will be 85.2 fine; which closely accords with the legal value. The average of 60,000 tolas of yowetnee in the late Ava remittance turned out 2 dwts. worse (90.8), but there was a loss of more than one per cent, in melting, from the exterior scoria. Dain, the most common form of bullion met with in circulation, is so called from an assessment levied during the late king's reign upon villages and houses: dain signifying a stage, or distance of two miles. These cakes also weigh from 20 to 30 tikals each. Their prescribed legal quality is 10 per cent, better than yowetnee, which puts this species of silver on a par with kharoobat. In practice however the quality varies from 1 to 10 per cent, better (5 Br. to 13 Wo. than Calcutta standard). The average of 52 lakhs of dain turned out 3 dwts Br. There is an adulterated dain silver, stated by Major Burney to be similar in quality to yowetnee, but in reality much worse (42 dwts. Wo.) lately introduced and extensively circulated: it is made by admixture of lead, and is called Madain. The following will serve as examples of the mode of evaluating bullion : Dain, ko-moo-det, is Dain 9 per cent, better. (See explanation above.) -, nga-moo-det ...... 5 per cent, better. Yowetnee,.....standard. (85 touch.) Kyat-ge, or ta-tshay-ge, 1 tikal or tenth of alloy (meaning th weight of alloy added to standard.) Kyouk-tshay nga-kyat-ge, 6 tens 5 tikal alloy (meaning 65 per cent, of alloy added.) -, gyan, half yowetnee (and half alloy). Gold. The purity of gold is expressed by moos or tenths only: ten moos (tshay moo) (100 touch) being esteemed pure gold. 1 pe, King's gold," or standard, is ca\\ed Ka-moo-ta pe-le yowe, (9 moos, 4 seeds,) or 9 moos fine. Merchants' gold is Ko-moo-ta-be, 9 moos fine. Gold-mohurs are called 8 moos fine by the Ava assayers. The out-turn of the Ava specimens will be given as an Appendix to the general table. Having now adverted to most of the groups and denominations of money, which are comprised in the following tables, it remains merely to explain the sources whence the materials for them have been collected. For the coins of the west of India, Mr. Noton's table, published at Bombay, in 1821, has been consulted, and for India generally, the table published in Kelly's Cambist, from the Assays of Mr. Binglby, at the Royal Mint; but the principal portion is derived from the table printed, but not published, by Mr. H. H. Wilson, Assay Master at Calcutta, in 1833 from his own assays indeed almost all the coins inserted in the table have been frequently assayed, and generally in large parcels, at the Calcutta, Benares, and Sagur mints. As Mr. Watson's table gives the value in sicca rupees (of 191.916 grains troy), it has been necessary to recalculate the whole column of produce; which now, in the silver table, expresses the value of 100 of each species of coin in the general standard British Rupee of 180 grains. To find their value in sicca rupees (of 192 grs.) it is only requisite to divide the Furukhabad value by 16, and deduct the product, as explained in page 3. The weight and pure contents are expressed in troy grains. The standard or assay is given both according to the decimal system and in the usual terms of assaying; viz. in carats, grains, and quarters, for gold,—and in pennyweights and halves for silver,—better or worse than the standard of the Company's coins, namely 11 ounces fine and one ounce alloy. The silver pound is divided into 12 oz. or 240 dwts. or 480 halves. The gold pound into 24 carats, or 96 carat grains or 384 quarters. The intrinsic value' of the coins is the relative value of their pure metal, as compared with the pure contents of the gold-mohur and the rupee. The mint price is two per cent, less, besides the charge for refinage, according to the quality of metal, as stated in pages 7 and 9. To find the value of any number of rupees, follow the rule before laid down; namely, multiply by the figures in the column of produce and divide by 100. For gold coins, if required in rupees, multiply further by the regulation value, 16 for the Calcutta or 15 for the Madras mohur; or if the bazar price be wanted, by the bazar price of the gold-mohur for the time being. The decimal parts of the mohur and rupee may be converted into annas and pie by Table V. page 10. Established Exchange for certain Rupees. 33 It should be remarked, that the following tables are not intended as an authoritative list of the rates at which the various coins are received by Government, but solely to shew their average intrinsic produce when brought to the mint as bullion to be converted into Furukhabad rupees. Particular rules have been at different times promulgated, fixing the exchange at which military and other payments were to be made, and revenue to be received, in different currencies. Such was the list published in Reg. III. 1806, which is now obsolete, being inconvenient in application from its specifying the value by weight and not by tale. The following rules are still in force at the Government treasuries of the Bengal Presidency: the first has reference to the old current rupee of account, of which 116 were equal to 100 siccas: this imaginary money is now disused, except in the valuation of some few articles of the English market in the price current. In the payment of troops and others connected with the Military Department, 116 Sonat or Furukhabad rupees. 111 Sicca rupees. 325 Ditto, 350 Madras and Bombay rupees. In payments to others not in the military service, 100 Sicca rupees, 104 Furukhabad or Sonat rupees. The established rates of Batta on local currencies fixed for the guidance of revenue officers are as follows: Benares and Gourshahee rupees, at par with Furukhabadees. 104 Barelly rupees, = lOO. Furkhbd Rs. Under Gov. Orders, 1st July, 1833. 120 Hyderabad rupees, 100 Bombay rupees, for payment of troops, &c. 100 Ditto, 83 r. 14 a. 3 p. sicca, For adjustment of accounts of Hyderabad Residency. 100 The Ikery, Bhol, Bholpady, Behadury, and Faruky pagodas are taken at 387.2. Ankosy rupees at the Poona treasury*. *Noton's table, 4th Aug. 1821. He states however that the rates may hare varied since 1812, when they were established. 100 Gaddopady, Tadak, Kadvanajy, Haly, Modapady, and Bangalore pagodas, Our information regarding the copper coin in circulation throughout Central India is very limited, but it is well known that as much perplexity exists in the varieties of pyse, and in the greater range of their value, as in the coins of the more precious metals; so that every town and village almost has its separate currency, and its established nirkh, or rate of exchange with the rupee, to the great inconvenience of the traveller and of the poorer classes. In weight they vary from 280 grains (the Jypoory, &C.) to 34 grains (the Mewary): the former passing at about 35, the latter at 378, pose for a rupee. From the small advantage of melting up copper money, it happens that much of the circulation in this metal is of very great antiquity; and not only many ancient Hindu coins are met with, but Bactrian and Roman copper coins are also frequently procurable at fairs and in the neighbourhood of old towns in Upper India. The pysa was in some cases adopted as the unit for determining the larger weights of the bazars, as the Gorukhpoory pysa, of which 530 were held equal to a pusseree (five seers) at Ghazeepoor, and generally throughout the Benares province. 2881 Chulun' of Futtehgurh in like manner were assumed as the weight of a maund in that district. The Delhi pysa, coined till 1818, was 12 mashes or 1 tola in weight. Table X. contains such a list of copper coins as the scanty materials at hand enables us to supply. Most of the native pyse contain more copper in proportion to their value than the present Company's coin, which was however originally one tola in weight, and was gradually reduced to 100 grains, (as shewn in the table ;) it is at present in fact a government token, worth intrinsically less than its nominal value. Within the ceded territories the native coins still predominate, but the Company's pyse is now gradually spreading to westward, and the Saugur mint has for several years been employed in converting the native copper money into Benares or tirsoolee pyse of 100 grains weight, and 64 to the rupee. At Bombay, the old pyse have been bought up by Government, for the purpose of removing them entirely from circulation, and substituting the new coin, (described in page 3.) The Bengal Government have also recently adopted a measure tending to withdraw the tirsoolee |