Foreign made coins for India for 1999 and 2000 (details not yet fully known)
By October 2000 I knew of three foreign minted coins for India dated 1999. One foreign mint for each denomination:-
1999 dated Five Rupees with the mint monogram of
the Moscow, Russia.
1999 dated Two Rupees with a "tower" mint mark.
1999 dated One Rupee with the MK (in a circle) mint
mark for Kremnica, Slovakia
When I first got my 1999 2 Rupees coin with the "tower" mint mark I
realised that it had a great resemblance to the mint mark found on some
Dominican Republic coins of 1983.
The image below is the mint mark on this new coin...........
The mint mark is below the date as they usually are.
The images below are close-up images of the mint mark on the 2 Rs.
and
the mint mark
seen on a Dominican Republic 10 Centavos of 1983.
Indian 2 Rupees 
Dominican Rep. 10c
So mystery remains as to the origins of the 1999 2 Rs. coins with the "tower" mint mark - but not at all so much mystery. There are only three other UK mints and one of those is the Pobjoy Mint which I believe is not equiped for quantities in the 100's of millions. The other two UK mints:- The Birmingham Mint, of course, the British Royal Mint are suited to these qunatities. The mint mark on these 1999 dated 2 Rs. coins is a little bit like the top half (vertically) of a letter "H" and the "H" is a mint mark with strong links (historically) to The Birmingham Mint. But the use of half a letter does seem rather odd especially when one has in mind my reasons for this mystery mint mark being that for the British Royal Mint. If one looks at the main logo of the British Royal Mint you will see what appears to be two towers on the end of a building, at the top left of the logo (not sure I am allowed show a copy of the image here). These must be the towers on this new Indian coin. Furthermore the last thing to do with all of this that I have realised is that the rose at the top right of the logo of the British Royal Mint was used once as a mint mark. The rose mint mark appears on the edge of two of the pieces in the Royal Mint Bi-metallic Trial Pack from 1994.
The recent report in the Indian press also gave details of what is proposed for the 2000 dated, foreign made coins for India. It was stated that 5 Rs. and 2 Rs. coins will be made by Moscow mint and 1 Re. coins in Slovakia (i.e. Kremnica mint). I do not yet know of any sightings of such 2000 dated coins. It is planned that foreign mints will make 2,500 million 2000 dated coins for India.
(more images will appear sometime.....)
****This page was written around November 2000, with a small part
removed at January 2007.