1765 Bombay gold mohur, £95,000 at Noonans.
Comprising 1246 coins (sold in 905 lots), the Robert Puddester Collection amassed over 45 years was the best and most complete of its type.
The £1.6m collection comprises coins dating from the inception of the East India Company in London by a group of merchant venturers in 1600 to the regal coinages issued by British India until independence in 1947.
Among its many rarities was the celebrated 1765 Bombay gold mohur.
One of only three, or possibly four specimens known to exist, it was bought from the sale of the Wolfson Trust collection in 1986. The first authenticated gold coinage for the Bombay presidency was authorised in the wake of a shortage of silver coin. In July 1765 the Bombay Council agreed that the new coins (some 4000 mohurs were struck using Venetian ducats) were to be made from 24ct gold and pass for 15 rupees.
Expected to fetch £100,000-150,000, it sold to an Indian collector at £95,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium).
