Coins of British India Coins of British India British trading posts in India were first established by the East India Company (EIC) early in the seventeenth century, which quickly evolved into larger colonies covering a significant part of the subcontinent. Early settlements or factories included Masulipatnam (1611) and Madras (1640) in the south, Surat (1612) in the west, and modern-day Kolkata (1698–99) in the east. These colonies gave rise to Madras Presidency, Bombay Presidency, and Bengal Presidency, and each Presidency had a separate coinage and monetary system. In 1835, the EIC adopted a unified system of coinage throughout all British possessions in India and
Commercial Bank of India Commercial Bank of India The Commercial Bank of India, also known as Exchange Bank was a bank which was established in Bombay Presidency (now Mumbai), in 1845 of the British Raj period. The bank failed in the crash of 1866, after successfully operating for 20 years. The bank had eight branches, exclusive of the head office at Bombay, viz: London, Calcutta, Hong Kong, Foochow, Shanghai, Hankow, Yokohama and Singapore, with an agency for the purchase of bullion at San Francisco. Commercial Bank of India then was winded up as directed by the Master of the Rolls, under the corresponding section