Description
Emergency Issues Princely States : Cash Coupons
The Second World War led to a diversion of resources into the war effort. The Mints were no exception and their capacity was increasingly used to mint coins for “Imperial Purposes”. By 1942, an acute scarcity of small coins was felt throughout India. While British India managed with postal surrogates, petty princely states in Western India like Balvan, Bikaner, Bundi, Gondal, Indergadh, Junagadh, Jasdan, Kutch Mengni, Muli, Morvi, Mangrol, Nawanagar, Nawalgarh Palitana, Rajkot, Sailana, Sayla, Vithalgadh, issued what are alluded as Cash Coupons to meet the shortage. Most Cash Coupons were printed crudely on press board. Their place in the history of Indian Paper Money is in the realm of exigent money (Emergency issues). Incidentally, only two princely states had issued paper currency – Jammu & Kashmir in 1876 and Hyderabad commencing from 1918. While the Government of Kutch had prepared specimens of currency notes, these were not issued.
