Preamble

Whereas it is expedient to enable the Governor-General in Council to declare that a tender of payment of money in certain coins made for or issued by Native States, shall be a legal tender in British India; It is hereby enacted as follows :

Short Title

1.This Act may be called “The Native Coinage Act,1876” :

Local Extent

It extends to the whole of British India

Commencement

And it shall come into force at once.

Interpretation Clause

2. In this Act Native State means any State in India which is under the protection or political control of Her Majesty, or of which the Government shall have acknowledge the supremacy of the British Crown.

Power to declare that the coins of a Native States shall be legal tender

3. Subject to the provisions of section four, the Governor-General in Council may, from time to time, by notification in the Gazette of India, declare that a tender of payment of money, if made in the coin, or coins of any specified metal, made under this Act for any Native State, shall be a legal tender in British India;

and the provisions of the Indian Coinage Act, 1870, shall apply to the coins to which such notification refers, so far as such provisions are applicable thereto, and save as expressly provided by such notification.

When such power may be exercised

4. The power conferred by the first clause of section three shall be exercisable only when the coins referred to in such notification comply with the following conditions (that is to say)-

in the case of coins of gold, silver or bronze

a) their fineness is identical with that for the time prescribed by law for coins of the Government of India of the same metal;

in the case of coins whether of gold, silver, bronze or copper

(b) they are identical in weight with some coins of the Government of India of the same metal, which may for the time being be legally coined at any Mint of the Government of India, or bear such relation thereto as is approved by the Governor-General in Council ;

(c) the devices upon their obverse and reverse differ from devices on coins now made or issued by any Native State, and have been approved by the Governor-General in Council;

(d) Upon each of such coins its value in money of the Government of India is inscribed in English Language ;

(e) the State for which they are coined has undertaken to abstain during a term of not less than thirty years, from the date of the notification, from coining in its own Mint gold, silver, bronze or copper, as the case may be, and has also undertaken that no coin resembling coins for the time being a legal tender in British India shall, after the expiration of the said term, be struck under his authority or its permission at any place within or without its jurisdiction;

(f) such State has formally declared that a tender of payment of money, if made in coins of the Government of India of the same metal shall, in the territories subject to such State, be a legal tender in the cases in which payment made in such coins would, under the law for the time being in force, be a legal tender in British India;

(g) such State has also agreed that the law and rules for the time being in force respecting the cutting and breaking of the coin of the Government of India reduced in weight by reasonable wearing or otherwise, or counterfeit, or called-in by proclamation, shall under this Act, and that it will defray the cost of cutting and breaking them; and

(h) such State has also agreed not to issue the same coins below their nominal value, and not to allow any discount or other advantage to any person in order to bring them into circulation.

Native States authorised to send metal to British India Mints for Coinage

5. It shall be lawful to any such State to send to any Mint in British India metal to be made into coin under this Act; and, subject to the Mint rules for the time being in force, and to the provisions hereinafter contained, the Mint-Master shall receive such metal and convert it into coin, provided it be fit for coinage.

Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to entitle any such State to have coins made under this Act at any Mint of the Government of India of any metal which is not for the time being legally coined at such Mint.

for coinage

6. The Governor-General in Council may impose on any metal sent to a Mint for coinage under this Act, the duty (if any) leviable on the same metal under the Indian Coinage Act, 1870, and also a charge sufficient to defray the expenses of coinage over and above the expenses of assay and refining; and the Mint-Master shall coin such metal at the charges so imposed.

Power to limit number of coins to be made under this Act for any Native State

7. The Governor-General in Council, may from time to time, with reference to the reasonable requirements of the population of any Native State, fix the maximum number of any coins of any particular metal that shall be coined under this Act.