Very Fine, Extremely Rare.

This curious piece bearing the Nagari letter 'Ma' is struck with a die that was employed to counterstrike British machine-made coins. A similar piece with the initials of Malhar Rao's predecessor, Sayaji Rao II, exists in the British Museum. George P Taylor, in his article “On the Baroda Coins of the Last Six Gaikwars”, published in Numismatic Supplement of 1912, illustrates one such coin countermarked on an East India Company ½ Anna of 1835. It appears that this acilitated converting coins, which had gone out of circulation and could be bought at a reduced value, into the currency of Baroda State.