1 Cent Pattern

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.