Following on from yesterday`s card, here we have another link to the East India Company, for look closely at this coin and you will see that their name is upon it. In fact before Indian coins came under the authority of the British Empire in 1835, they were issued by the East India Company. To start with, the coins were issued by the so called Presidencies, which ruled over the colonies that had been set up to mark the country into sections. Each one of these had different coins to start with but later on the East India Company were able to offer and supply a standard set of coins to all the different areas, quite a massive undertaking. However it also meant that they were then in total control of all those areas.
If not for the 1857 Rebellion this situation may have continued for ever However that caused such upheaval that the East India Company territories were lost, and came under the control of the British Empire. The coinage changed too, to reflect this, and from then on had the reigning monarch`s head on, all except for Edward VIII. This lasted until August 1947, after which India became a republic and changed the coinage once more, though not for several years after that event.
This coin is a Mohur, and it was made of gold. The name Mohur appears in many places throughout India and parts of Asia, and dates from the sixteenth century. The word is a lot earlier than the coin, and it came from Persia, where it actually meant a signet or seal, and almost certainly links to the raised mark on the coin.
In 1918 the British government dropped it from the list of coinage produced, but it still continued to be produced in many states, perhaps as an act of rebellion, right until 1947.
This card is an oddity, for many reasons, and not only because they vary wildly in their centering, with the width of the margins being all over the place. Also, from the bright colours and style of the picture you would easily believe it was a trade issue, but it firmly says "Oracle Cigarettes".
This turns out not to be a company, but a brand, of Tetley & Sons, no relation to the tea makers, at least I do not think so. Our Tetley was based in Boar Lane, Leeds and were founded in 1859. They are more known for their participation in the multi-issuer one off card called "The Allies", or sometimes "The Allies` Flags", and the set that almost everyone had a bite of, "War Portraits".
Our set is described in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes as :
WORLD`S COINAGE. Sm. 63 x 35. Inscribed "First Series of 50". Nos. 1/25 only issued. "Oracle" brand issue. See H.398.
H.398 thickens the plot, for it tells us that this set was also issued, in the same year, 1914, by John Sinclair of Newcastle-on-Tyne - and that their version was a set of 50.
I cannot find any link between Tetley and Sinclair, no mergers, nor buy outs, so what happened? Does anyone know...?
Also it would be amazing to see the back of a Sinclair card, any card, just to see the design, and to see whether Tetley copied that and just forgot to change the number in the set - which is a possibility.