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The Rupee was minted in both Calcutta and Bombay. There is no mint mark for Calcutta. The Bombay issues have a small incuse "B" (the 1903 Rupee also has a raised "B" variety). The incuse "B" mint mark can be impossible to see, though, so it is fortunate there is a second, more prominent mark, a "dot" on the stem of the lotus-bud (lower right on reverse). According to D. Chakravarty in his book "Coins of India" this was intentional. He says, "Since the 'dot' itself was found adequate to distinguish the products of the mint, and there was no need to have a conspicuous mint-mark, as an incuse 'B', from 1906 onward there was apparently an attempt to erase the 'B', but not very successfully." Various traces of the 'B' may be seen, but use the 'dot' on the lotus-bud stem to identify the mint.There is an interesting (and scarce) variety on the reverse of some 1903-C Rupees. The normal configuration of five dots is missing the lower dot. See the illustration below. The explanation seems to be that the engraver was not familiar with Persian script, so he made a mistake and left out one dot. This was soon rectified, so this rare error exists only on the first year of issue.

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