1/2 Fanon Pondichery

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.