The Compagnie des Indes issued fractional fanons for Pondicherry's local trade economy, where French colonial currency had to coexist — and compete — with a dense circulation of native coinage already calibrated to Indian weight standards. The fanon itself derived from a Tamil unit of account, and the French adoption of it was purely pragmatic: you could not trade in the Coromandel Coast markets without denominations the local population would accept.
The 117-year production span listed for this type reflects administrative continuity across the Company's collapse, the Napoleonic disruptions, and multiple British occupations of Pondicherry — the last ending in 1816 when the territory was finally restored to France under the Treaty of Paris.
The Compagnie des Indes issued fractional fanons for Pondicherry's local trade economy, where French colonial currency had to coexist — and compete — with a dense circulation of native coinage already calibrated to Indian weight standards. The fanon itself derived from a Tamil unit of account, and the French adoption of it was purely pragmatic: you could not trade in the Coromandel Coast markets without denominations the local population would accept.
The 117-year production span listed for this type reflects administrative continuity across the Company's collapse, the Napoleonic disruptions, and multiple British occupations of Pondicherry — the last ending in 1816 when the territory was finally restored to France under the Treaty of Paris.