I have no opportunity to take this further myself, so here are a few
concluding thoughts - in case anyone else will.  The causes of the famine
were fiendishly complex.  However, there seems to be a serious deficiency in
all theoretical economic accounts – none apparently even mention what was
viewed as the prime cause by well informed people at the time.  

I share Sen’s doubts that natural cause (blight) was the chief culprit, but
I hope it will not seem cynical, or biased, if I point out that if coin
supply was at the root (?) then the matter would more be a “market” or
“trade” matter – rather than a “trade entitlement” matter – getting in the
way of the use of one of Sen’s favourite words.

On another group someone sent me this link:

http://www.banknote.ws/COLLECTION/countries/ASI/IND/IND-PRC.htm

Which raises the tally of known states issuing emergency small change tokens
to around 70

By a very strange co-incidence, the day after I sent my first post, this
somewhat relevant news item appeared on the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-32316599

I am a little perplexed as to why this was kept secret until after the coins
had been melted (and indeed, why they were melted at all)

Rob Tye, York, UK