| Product
Code |
: |
PUD NO_796-2 AE |
| Subject | : | Claude Martin - Type II |
| Size | : | 34.5 mm |
| Metal | : | Copper |
| Year | : | 1796 |
| Description | : | obv. Uniformed bust of Major General Claude Martin right, around upper border : LABORE . ET .. CONSTANTIA, rev. Urdu inscription : HONOURED IN THE STATE, EXALTED IN THE KINGDOM, DISTINGUISHED NOBLE GENERAL CLAUDE MARTIN, THE BRAVE, COURAGEOUS IN BATTLE. The Hejira date 1211 is above the inscription and equates to AD 1796/97.
On the obverse ET and CONSTANTIA are separated by two knobs. The titles of honour in Urdu on the reverse of these tokens were given to Martin by Asuf-ud-daula, the ruler of Awadh, after Martin’s promotion by the Honourable East India Company to the honorary title of Major-General and his help in the campaign against the Rohillas: Sharf-ud-daulah, Saif-ul-Mulk, Imtiyaz Khan, General Klood Marteen Bahadur, Shahmath Jung 1211. The most appropriate translation is used above but, as in English a wide variety of meanings may be available for a word: ‘sharf’ can mean ‘honour, rank, dignity, excellence’ and thus the legend could begin ‘Excellent (or Excellence) in government…’
The portrait by Alexander McKenzie found on this and the next two tokens was modelled on a bust by the artist Francesco Renaldi who had painted Martin when in Lucknow in 1795. McKenzie was to strike the tokens himself after the contract had been taken away from Soho but his high profile medallic rendition of the bust proved very difficult to execute on a token or coin which usually required a flatter rendition to preserve the dies over a large striking. The result was that the contract for the remaining tokens was removed from McKenzie and returned to Soho Mint.
The only record traced of the gold tokens being sold in the last twenty years are two examples of the two knob type. Spink’s Singapore auction in June 1995 contained a very fine specimen which sold for about five thousand American dollars. In Spink’s London sale of October 7, 1999, an impaired specimen with the edge trimmed and a ring suspender clumsily soldered on sold for about a tenth of the 1995 price. A few months later the same specimen was offered in Geneva sale. |
