From 1939 until the end of 1941 when Japan entered World War
II the Indian economy was not seriously affected. The requirement for the coin
was well within the capacity of the Indian mints, but demands for foreign
coinages brought increasing pressure both in metal stocks and machine capacity.
In England, the great pressure of work on the Royal Mint and
the insecurity of sea communications from England to Africa, Arabia, and the
East resulted in a number of foreign and colonial coinage orders being passed over
to the Indian mints for execution – namely, those of Ceylon, East Africa,
Egypt, Iraq, Malaya, Muscat, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the Maria Theresa Thaler.
To this was added demands from several native Indian states, and the decision
in March 1940 to adopt the 500 fine standard for the Indian silver coins.
As this pressure increased and metal supplies gradually
became more difficult to obtain (the Amrican silver loans did not materialize
until 1943), consideration was given to the problem of economies in domestic
coin production, to leave more capacity free for foreign orders and also reduce
the amount of metals required for this purpose.
It was in the light of these problems that the proposal was
made to introduce a 2½ Rupee coin which was provisionally called a Dollar, the
term Dollar having no meaning relative to any decimal standard.
The advantages of a 2½ Rupee coin were twofold:
(a) A considerable saving of metal would be affected, as
each Dollar would replace two One Rupee coins and one Half Rupee coin, which
together had a combined weight of 450 troy grains against a proposed weight of
225 grains for the single 2½ Rupee coin, and
(b) The productive capacity set free for other purposes, in
the stamping department alone, one coining press engaged upon a 2½ Rupee coin
would produce the same total value as three presses striking rupees and the
half rupee.
The project reached the stage where pattern coins were
prepared for submission and approval by the Minister of Finance, with the
intention of introducing an amendment to the Coinage Act to enable the coins to
be made legal tender. Before this could be done Japan entered the War. The
situation changed immediately and the proposal had to be abandoned.
Some samples of this pattern coin still exists
and are very rare to see.
