Baroda's tin pattern pieces occupy an awkward documentary gap — the state's coinage authority under the Gaekwad dynasty was constrained by British paramountcy, meaning any new type required implicit approval from the colonial administration before regular issue. Uniface trials like this one were produced to demonstrate a proposed design to approving authorities, with the reverse left blank precisely because the submission was incomplete by intent.
The KM#32.2 reference places this within Sayajirao III's long reign, during which Baroda maintained one of the more administratively independent minting operations among Indian princely states.
Baroda's tin pattern pieces occupy an awkward documentary gap — the state's coinage authority under the Gaekwad dynasty was constrained by British paramountcy, meaning any new type required implicit approval from the colonial administration before regular issue. Uniface trials like this one were produced to demonstrate a proposed design to approving authorities, with the reverse left blank precisely because the submission was incomplete by intent.
The KM#32.2 reference places this within Sayajirao III's long reign, during which Baroda maintained one of the more administratively independent minting operations among Indian princely states.