[Jim McDougall]

In looking into the gun locks used on these I notice that while the earlier ones with the quartered heart prevail (until use of the rampant lion in 1808) there are a good number of examples using a heart with heraldic 'flaunched' design. Both use the same configuration of the initials VEIC.

I thought I had seen this unusual design (semi circles on either side) on an EIC coin at some point and thought perhaps that might yield a clue as to why these are different. It seems that Brooker ("British Military Pistols") thought these were storekeepers marks.
In looking for the coin, I finally found the example, which was a pice (=cent) from Penang, Malay peninsula which became British colony in 1786. It was governed by the Bengal Presidency where these copper coins were minted in Calcutta.

I noticed further that makers Leigh and Barnett were prevalent makers of gun locks for EIC with 1806 issues seen with these 'flaunched' hearts. Mortimer examples (producing in 1790s) also have these hearts.

I am wondering if these locks using this type heart may have been produced for the Bengal Presidency of the EIC? It has not seemed that such specifics would have been likely, unless these makers were attending to certain requirements to a specific regional need of an EIC department.

The fact that the Bengal presidency seemed to favor this design of the EIC chop mark as indicated by these coins from Penang, while it seems in all other areas the standard quartered heart prevailed begs the question, why?

While this may seem an irrelevant query, it seems perhaps it might be pertinent to regional use of certain locks.