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Gold, silver and copper have been used as money in India for over 2,000 years, and numismatics offers an interesting perspective on issues such as inflation and exchange rates. India’s modern currency, the ‘rupee’ dates back to the Mughal era, or rather, the reign of Sher Shah Suri, who introduced the first silver ‘rupiya’, a standardized coin weighing 11.4 grams (See Figure 1). This was adopted by the mughals and most of the other Indian rulers, and later on by the British, who introduced milled coinage to India. The earliest British coins minted in India were silver coins of a...

The anna, together with the rupee and the paisa, formed the basis of the Indian currency system (1 Rupee = 16 anna = 64 paisa) till 1957. Higher denomination coins such as the rupee, half rupee were minted in silver while lower value coins such as one-quarter anna (1 paisa), 1/12 anna (one pie) or ½ pice were minted in copper and bronze. The half anna (1/32 rupee or 2 paisa) was the highest of these lower value copper/bronze coins. The first pan-India half anna coin was introduced in 1835 by the East India Company – this was a large...

The anna, together with the rupee and the paisa, was the foundation of the Indian currency system (1 Rupee = 16 anna = 64 paisa). But remarkably, India did not have a 1 anna coin till 1907. During Edward VII’s reign, the first ever 1 anna coins were designed and minted – not before a lot of to and fro. The Indian Coinage Act of 1906 provided for a 1 anna nickel coin – a denomination that had not existed up to now. Coins of 2 anna and above were all silver, while smaller values were one-quarter anna (1 paisa),...

Porbandar is famous in India as the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, whose grandfather, father and uncle had served as Dewan to the rulers of Porbandar. The state was ruled by the Jethwa clan of Rajputs and the ruler was titled ‘Rana’ of Porbandar, who were entitled to an 11-gun salute, among the smaller states of this type. Porbandar lies in the Kathiawar region of present day Gujarat. The state was a coastal strip of land 636 square miles in area, and not wider than 24 miles at any one point. Porbandar’s population in 1901 was 82,640. Despite its relatively small...

Bajranggarh was one of the many Indian princely states to issue coins in the British era. Bajranggarh was the name of a fort in the Raghugarh state – which was a feudatory of the Scindias of Gwalior. This state and the fort lie within the present day district of Guna. The rulers of Bajranggarh had a long standing dispute with the Scindias, and two of them were even imprisoned by the Scindia. This dispute was eventually resolved with British mediation in 1818. Bajranggarh was a small state – with an area of just 112 square miles and a population of...