The 1810 cent pattern was struck in London as part of a broader push to rationalize coinage across Company-administered territories in the subcontinent and the Straits. The East India Company's Court of Directors had been wrestling for years with a chaotic mix of local currencies — pagodas, fanams, pice, and Dutch leftovers — that complicated tax collection and trade settlement alike. A decimal trial made administrative sense on paper.
It went nowhere. The pattern was never adopted, and the Company continued issuing regionally fragmented coinages for decades after.
The 1810 cent pattern was struck in London as part of a broader push to rationalize coinage across Company-administered territories in the subcontinent and the Straits. The East India Company's Court of Directors had been wrestling for years with a chaotic mix of local currencies — pagodas, fanams, pice, and Dutch leftovers — that complicated tax collection and trade settlement alike. A decimal trial made administrative sense on paper.
It went nowhere. The pattern was never adopted, and the Company continued issuing regionally fragmented coinages for decades after.