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MAY, 1893.
DANISH COINS FROM TRANQUEBAR.
117
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by birth, was attacked by the Portuguese off the Coromandel coast and lost. The commander escaped with thirteen men to the court of Tanjore. Five other ships had left home in November 1618, in command of Ove Gedde, a Danish nobleman. Through the united efforts of Crape and Gedde, a treaty between Denmark and Achyutappa, the Nayaka of Tanjavur, was concluded in November 1620. By this treaty, the Nayaka ceded Tranquebar with fifteen neighbouring villages, - a strip of land of 11 hours breadth and 2 hours length, - against an annual tribute of about Rs. 4,000. Having laid the foundation of the fort of Dansborg, Gedde returned to Denmark, while Crape remained in charge of the new settlement. With one interruption (A. D. 1808 to 1814) the Danes continued to hold Tranquebar for more than two centuries until 1845, when it was purchased by the British. Since then, Tranquebar has lost its commercial importance to Negapatam, a former Dutch port, which enjoys the advantage of being connected with the main-line of the South Indian Railway by a branch from Tanjore.
As appears from Mr. Neumann's great work on Copper Coins7 and Mr. Weyl's Catalogue of the Fonrobert Collection, the Danes issued a large number of types of colonial coins, most of which, however, are now rare or not procurable at all. A few years ago, Messrs. T. M. Ranga Chari and T. Desika Chari published the contents of their collection. Through the kind offices of the Rev. T. Kreuseler, who continued for some time to purchase on my account all coins which could be obtained at and near Tranquebar, I have since acquired a fairly representative collection, which is the subject of this paper. The abbreviations N, W, and B refer to the above-mentioned treatises of Mr. Neumann, Mr. Weyl, and Messrs. Ranga Chari and Desika Chari, respectively. For the preparation of the plaster casts, from which the accompanying Plate was copied, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. B. Santappah, Curator of the Mysore Government Museum at Bangalore.
I.--CHRISTIAN THE FOURTH.
(A. D. 1588 to 1648.) No. 1. Lead. Weight, 644 grains.
(N. 20646; W. 2802.) Obv. C with 4 enclosed (the monogram of the king), surmounted by a crown.
[.I.B.] Rev. CAS
1645 This specimen is valuable on account of its complete date ; on the copy noticed by Neumann, the last figure is missing, and the reverse of Weyl's copy is illegible. The letters I. B. on the reverse are supposed to stand for T. B., an abbreviation of the mint-town, Tranquebar : see Neumann's remark on his No. 20672. Cas, and Kas on later Danish coins, represents, like the Anglo-Indian “ cash," - the Tamil word kasu, a coin.'
II.-FREDERICK THE THIRD.
(A. D. 1648 to 1670.) No. 2. Copper. Average weight, 121 grains.
(N. 20648; R. 1.) Obv. F 3, crowned.
Rev. The Norwegian lion. Neumann refers to a similar coin (N. 20647) with the date ANNO 1667 on the obverse.
See Dr. Germaan's Johann Philipp Pabricine, Erlangen 1865, p. 87.
. On the Dutch copper coins of Negapatam (Nagapattanam) and Palicat (Palavea) see Mr. Noumann's Copper Coins, Vol. III. p. 60 f. and Plate xlvii.
* Beschreibung der bekanntesten Kupfermūnsen, Vol. III. Prag 1863, pp. 73 f. Verzeichnis von Münzen und Denkmünzen der Jules Ponrobert'schon Sammlung, Berlin 1878, PP. 193 1. Indo-Danish Coins; Madres Journal of Literature and Science or the Soarion 1888-89.
