Watch List notes:

BHUTAN:LOT of 247 copper & brass half rupee coins: Period III (1835-1910), attributed by Krause numbers with additional numbers indicated as per Kris van den Cruyce, Coinage of Bhutan (2015): with (normal) 'SA', KM-7.1-7.4, 7.6 (119); with 'cross', KM-8.1-8.9 (33); with retrograde 'SA', KM-A8.1 (11); with swastika, KM-9.1, 9.2 (2); with wang, KM-10 (1); with fishes, KM-13, 14 (31); with conch, KM-15 (5); plus a study lot of various local and error strikes, etc. (26); also Bhutan, copper & brass half rupees, additional numbers indicated as per Kris van den Cruyce: with Buddhist symbols, KM-16 (3); with Buddhist symbols, KM-18a, 20a (5); and with Buddhist symbols, KM-21, 22 (11); a wonderful collection of these ever-popular types, average circulated quality, retail value $1900, lot of 247 coins, ex Wolfgang Schuster Collection. Capt. R.B. Pemberton, who went to Bhutan on behalf of the East India Company in 1837-38, mentioned that the Bhutanese coins in circulation were called the "deb rupee" and that the standard of purity of the metal was dependent on the personal honesty of the official who struck it; "so great a variety is found in the standard value of the coin that it is altogether rejected by the inhabitants of the plains" he wrote. He also says that the Bhutanese used to take silver coins from the plains, melt them down, debase the alloy, and then strike their own coins, indicating that the deb rupee must have circulated at very much in excess of the metal value.

Estimate: 800-1,000 USD