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Anna (monetary subunit)

British India currency unit, 1/16 of a rupee

Summary

British India currency unit, 1/16 of a rupee

An anna (or ānna) was a currency unit formerly used in British India, equal to of a rupee. It was subdivided into four pices or twelve pies (thus there were 192 pies in a rupee). When the rupee was decimalised and subdivided into 100 (new) paise, one anna was therefore equivalent to paise. The anna was demonetised as a currency unit when India decimalised its currency in 1957, followed by Pakistan in 1961. It was replaced by the 5-paise coin, which was itself discontinued in 1994 and demonetised in 2011. The term anna is frequently used to express a fraction of .

Anna is derived from the Sanskrit अन्न, meaning "food".

There was a coin of one anna, and also half-anna coins of copper and two-anna pieces of silver. With the rupee having been valued to 1s 6d and weighing 180 grains as a 916.66 fine silver coin, the anna was equivalent to d (one penny and half a farthing). Hence the 2 anna silver coins were of low weight (22.5 grains = 1.46 g).

Anna-denominated postage stamps were issued during the British Raj by the government of British India as well as by several princely states, and after independence until decimalisation of the currency by India and Pakistan.

Notation

The first number is the number of rupees, the second is the number of annas (), the third is the number of paisas (), and the fourth is the number of pies (). Examples are given below.

  • Rs 1-15-3-2 = Rs 1.9947
  • Rs 1-8-3 = Rs 1.546
  • Rs 1-4 = Rs 1.25

Coins

File:Reverse of the copper One Twelfth Anna.jpg|One Twelfth Anna ( Anna) coin of 1903 File:Obverse of the 1906 One Quarter Anna of India portraying the bust of Edward VII.jpg|Obverse of the 1906 quarter anna, with the bust of Edward VII File:2 Indian anna (1919).jpg|2 Indian annas (1919). File:Ana Naya Paisa Conversion Table.jpg|Annas - Paisa Conversion Table. Image: East India Company - Quarter Anna 1835.JPG|An 1835 quarter anna.

Stamps

File:1865ca Half India SG54 boxN°2.jpg | Half anna stamp of British India File:A stamp.JPG | One anna stamp of Alwar File:307-Railway-Centenary-India-Stamp-1953.jpg | Two anna stamp of independent India File:Pakistan1948-1952.jpg | One anna and one and a half anna stamps of independent Pakistan

References

References

  1. "Republic India Coinage".
  2. "British India Coinage - Coins of Queen Victoria". Reserve Bank of India.
  3. Schedule of Par Values, Currencies of Metropolitan Areas, The Statesman's Year Book 1947, pg xxiii, Macmillan & Co
  4. "British India Coinage". Reserve Bank of India.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

historical-currencies-of-india coins-of-india rupee
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