§ MR. GRENFELL (Buckinghamshire, Wycombe)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been directed to the fact that with the mints closed to the free coinage of silver, no less than seventeen and a quarter crores of rupees have been coined during the past year in India; whether so large a number of rupees were ever coined in a single year when the Indian mints were open to the free coinage of silver, and if so, in what years; and what has been the average profit per rupee coined during the financial year.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONThe coinage in India during the twelve months from 1st March, 1900, to 28th February, 1901, appears to have been a little over sixteen crores of rupees. This is nearly equal to the amount of the coinage in 1877–78, the greatest hitherto recorded. The average profit per rupee coined cannot yet be stated, but it is doubtless very large; possibly about 30 per cent, of the coined value may be profit. The profit is not being treated as revenue, but is being set apart in a gold reserve fund. There is no intention of again considering proposals for the re-opening of the Indian mints to the free coinage of silver.