18^th November 2024.

Next club meeting Monday 2^nd December 2024.

Subject - Members Evening

The activities will be as follows:

1. A coin quiz, be sure to bring along a pen!

2. Members to bring along one or two items that for some reason are considered special (e.g.

recent acquisition, a long sought after piece, an unusual find, an oddity etc.).

A brief written explanation as to why the piece is special to you.

3. Christmas buffet!

Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.

Notices

As usual the January meeting is for short talks by members. So put your thinking caps on now!

November Meeting

Alastair Mackay gave a talk entitled Mauritius – a History in Banknotes.

Alastair introduced the topic with a reminder of what some of us might know about Mauritius:

• It was the home of the Dodo that became extinct in the 1680’s – more of that later.
• It issued two of the world’s rarest stamps – the 1847 1d and 2d stamps – specimens now sell for £m’s.
• It has had a long dispute with the UK over the sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago – now resolved although the Diego Garcia airbase remains a US/UK entity.

And then went on to relate some lesser known facts:

• The island takes it name from the Dutch Prince Mauritz/Maurice of Nassau, but during the period of French rule was called Ile de France.
• The main industries are tourism, sugar cane production and fishing
• Mauritius is a number of islands, and while the name of the largest island, the others are Rodrigues (about 600 km away), Agalega (1800 km away) and now also the Chagos islands (even further away).
• The population of Mauritius island is 1.2M and Rodrigues and the other islands bring the total population up to 1.3M.
• The present currency is the Mauretian Rupee at approx. 60Rs to 1GBP.

Although the islands were known to Arab and Portuguese traders, they did not settle there. It was in 1610 that the Dutch settled on Mauritius (Dutch East India Company) but abandoned the island at the end of the 17^th having rendered the Dodo and Giant Tortoise extinct (eaten) and cleared large swathes of the ancient ebony forests. They introduced sugar cane to the island (but the cane variety did not thrive), as well as destructive alien species such as deer, pigs, rats and cats.

The French occupied the islands from about 1710 and governed for the next century. It was at this time that the capital Port Louis was established as a naval base. During this period i sugar cane production massively increased using slaves brought in from Madagascar, East Africa and South Asia. It was in this period that the French East India Company issued the first banknotes – in

Left: 1720 Compagnie des Indes promissory note for 52 Louis d’Argent

Right: Compagnie des

Indes, Quarter Piastre of

1759. Note that it refers to

the island as Ile de France.

various denominations Louis d’Argent, Piastres and the like. After the Treaty of Paris in 1763 the French East India Company hit financial difficulties and the island governance was taken over by the French government. New notes were issued by Louis XV in 1766 in denominations of 10, 20, 40 Sols and 3 Livres for a total value of 260,000 Livres; but all notes were recalled and destroyed in 1768.The 1768 issue was for denominations of 10 Sols, 1, 2, 3, 6,12, 24, 30, 8, 72, 96 and 120 Livres, examples of all but the 30 Livres still exist. Rampant inflation meant that the next issue in 1769 was of denominations of 25, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300 and 2000 Livres

Due to the very poor condition of the notes coins were introduced for use on Mauritius and Reunion dated 1779, 1780 and 1781, but this didn’t resolve the problem with the notes. In 1784 two commissaires were sent from France to oversee the withdrawal of all notes and assure their destruction, and all withdrawn notes were cancelled by two diagonal lines. Virtually all notes prior to 1778 that survive today were cancelled.

Left: Isles de France & de Bourbon (Reunion) Six Livres 1768

Right: Isles de France & de Bourbon 200 Livres 1778 – 4 separate issues were made in 1778 alone

The later years of French rule the currency experienced severe inflation, and not helped by the revolutionary events in metropolitan France and a blockade from 1794 by the British. By 1809 things were so bad that the exchange rate was 1 piastre to 10,000 livres.

Far left: Isles de France and de Bourbon 5000 livres, 1795

Left: Isles de France and de Bourbon 10,000 livres

In December 1810 Isle de France surrendered to the British and reverted to its original name of Mauritius. The island was effectively bankrupted by the departing French troops took much of the coinage that had been amassed.

The first British Governor was Robert Townsend Farquhar, who quickly realised that a banking institution was required, and a bank was duly opened in 1813 with a capital of 2,000,000 livres.

Left: Bank of Mauritius and Bourbon 1 Crown 1813

Far left: Fifty dollars 1840

The 1830s brought great change. With the abolition of slavery, the start of indentured labour for work in the sugar industry began. Between 1834 and 1838 British investment in the industry was £500,000. The Mauritius Bank was given a royal charter in 1831, and issued notes in denominations of 10, 15, 20, 100 and 200 dollars – only a 10 and 20 dollar note survive. In 1838 the Mauritius Commercial Bank was founded producing notes in locally printed £2, £3, £4, £10, £20, £40, £100 and £200 denominations, and in 1839 notes were printed in both sterling and dollars (at 5$ to £1). Bank notes issued in 1843 were the last to be issued by a private bank in Mauritius.

The 1840’s saw a move away from Piastres and Dollars to the Indian Rupee. However, exchange difficulties and economic slump saw the Rupee replaced by Sterling notes from 1855, and it was not until the 1870’s that the Rupee was re-established as the island currency.

Far left: The Government of Mauritius £ One 1860

Left: Rs1000 Note 1932 first series of notes with the ruling monarch

In 1932 the first notes picturing the ruling monarch appeared, and continued so to do until 1978, ten years after independence from Britain, but now as head of state. The exception to this was during the Second World War when emergency notes were issued (often printed on the backs of demonetized Rs10 notes of 1876-1930.

Following pressure from various political parties and gaining a majority in the Legislative Assembly Britain agreed to Mauritian independence, which was effective on 12 March 1968. The first Prime Minister of Mauritius was Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, who had formerly been Chief Minister in the colonial government. On 12 March 1992 Mauritius became a Republic, but remained in the Commonwealth.

After independence from Britain Mauritian bank notes featured portraits of a series of PMs, Presidents and prominent politicians. Many of these reflect the harmonious multi-racial make-up of the nation.

Left: One of the 230,000 1942 emergency notes

Right: One of the last Queen Elizabeth notes from 1978

Below are examples of some of the Portrait notes issued since independence.

Sir Seewoosagur Ramloogam, the first PM of an independent Mauritius

Sir Anerood Jugnauth PM

Sir Veerasamy Ringadoo First President of the Republic of Mauritius

Sookdeo Bissondoyal 1908-1977 Hindu-Mauritian leader in the independence movement

Sir Moilin Jean Ah-Chuen 1911-1991 Sino-Mauritian Politician involved in independence discussions

Sir Charles Gaetan Duval 1930 – 1996 Creole-Mauritian lawyer and politician

Alastair’s talk was heartily applauded and appreciated by the club, as were his pictures of Mauritian birds and anecdotes from his holiday on the island.

Future Events.

• London Coin Fair – Shortlands, London W6 – 1^st February 2025

• Midland Coin Fair - National Motorcycle Museum – 8^th December & 12^th January 2025

• Spinks Auctions - 3rd-5^th, 10^th December and 17^th January 2025

• Noonans, Mayfair, W1J 8BQ – 10^th December & 19^th February 2025

• St James Auctions – 2^nd December

• Warwick & Warwick Auctions – 11^th December

Past Events

Ten years ago in 2014, Alastair Mackay spoke on “The Banknotes of Yugoslavia”

Twenty years ago in 2004, Dr. S Bhandare spoke on “Aspects of Oriental Coins”

Club Secretary.