Coinage

Money in India over time:

Thousands of years with little change, then four changes in about 150 years!

Rulers issued coins for their kingdoms, so each kingdom had its own. Only rulers could control minting (making coins; a mint is the place where coins are made).

Over time, the coins of powerful rulers were accepted in other kingdoms too, which helped trade. A trusted coin travels further than the king who made it!

Coins were made of gold, silver, copper or mixes, and called kārṣhāpaṇas or paṇas. Symbols punched on them were called rūpas. Sound familiar? 'Paṇa' still means money: paṇam in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, and haṇa in Kannada!

A coin's two sides, head (obverse) and tail (reverse), carried designs: animals, trees, hills, kings or queens, gods. The Chalukya coins show Varāha (an avatar of Viṣhṇu) on one side and a decorated three-tiered umbrella on the other. A Chola silver coin shows a tiger.

Coins boosted India's sea trade. Roman gold coins have been dug up at Pudukkottai (Tamil Nadu) and in Kerala. Gold flowing into India means Romans were buying from India, so scholars say the trade was in India's favour.

More recently: 1 anna = 1/16 of a rupee. In 1947, one anna could buy a dozen bananas! Today's coins come in different sizes, with Hindi and English on them; special coins mark big events, like 75 years of independence (2021).

The ₹ sign was adopted in 2010, designed by Udaya Kumar of IIT Bombay. It mixes the Devanagari 'र' (ra) and the Roman 'R', with two lines on top standing for the national flag and an 'equals' sign.