East India Company (modern): List of Coins Minted (Page 3 of 4)

The original East India Company (EIC) was an English and later British joint-stock company founded in 1600. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia), and later with Qing China. The company ended up seizing control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, and maintained trading posts and colonies in the Persian Gulf Residencies. It was dissolved in 1874 by the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act 1873.

In the early 1980s, a group of Londoners revived the brand with the Queen's permission, focusing on tea and coffee businesses. They expanded the EIC’s brand in Europe, the USSR, and the US.

Sanjiv Mehta, a Mumbai-based entrepreneur, acquired the East India Company in 2005, and in 2010 officially re-launched it as a luxury brand, bearing the same name and using the original merchant mark as its logo, and once again trading in tea, coffees and fine foods.

The company issued a limited edition series of Gold Mohur medals featuring the iconic Lion and Palm Tree design, minted by The Royal Mint. Since 2012, the company mints coins in partnership with the Issuing Authority of St Helena and with the Royal Approval of Queen Elizabeth II. The connection with the island is that the original company had been awarded the right to fortify the Island of St Helena in 1657, and thereafter used it as a supply base.

When the first release of legal tender coins by the newly revived company was announced in 2012, the announcement stated that the coins were "commissioned" by the East India Company, and struck by the Royal Mint. Given that the company does not seem to own minting facilities, it probably outsources the actual production of its coins to the Royal Mint again, or to other mints. Without any further information on the topic though, and given that the products bear an EIC mint mark, we have to list EIC is having "minted" them.

On some coins, the East India Company has the letters E·I·C for mint mark.

Letters EIC, clockwise, separated by tall crosses.

When the East India Company was chartered by Elizabeth I, Queen of England in 1600 it was still customary for each merchant or Company of Merchant Adventurers to have a distinguishing mark which included the mystical "Sign of Four" and served as a trademark. The East India Company's mark was made up from the initials EIC within a heart shape, crested with a 4. The letters are within a saltire (diagonal cross).

On some coins, The East India Company does not use a mint mark (usually because the full name of the company is part of the inscription).