French India, Gold Pagoda, 3.39gm, Obv: Single (Swami) Godess, Rev: Crescent in grained field. The Dutch authorities to have said tried to delete the Pondichery 'crescent' mint mark. As we know the Dutch had similar looking pagodas which had granulated the Reverse like the French, by defacing the 'crescent' mintmark on reverse must have been passed the french pagoda as one of Dutch in the later years. As a result the French had to discontinue minting this pagodas because of objection from their church at the initial stage even though it had not been withdrawn from circulation. Later on the French went for minting of three Swami gold pagodas on the pattern of the English with just completely granulated reverse without any mint marks like crescent. The crescent mint mark was incorporated by the French on their gold pagodas for the first time as a deference to the Arcot Nawabs under whose authority they were minting the same, later continued on the silver rupees which they started minting under Governor Dumas after getting the Firman from Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah on 1736 through good words from the Nawab Dost Ali. Above is a clear Specimen Showing the defusement of the crescent mark, a historical coin to collect, Unrecorded. View Lot Details