1/2 Pagoda - Venkataya Raya III

Venkataya Raya III ruled under the regency of the powerful Dalavoy Ramaraja Ayyappa, and his reign effectively marked the terminal phase of meaningful Vijayanagara authority. The empire had never recovered from the catastrophic defeat at Talikota in 1565, and by the 1630s the court at Vellore and later Chandragiri controlled little beyond ceremonial prestige and a shrinking revenue base. Gold coinage continued — partly from institutional inertia, partly because the pagoda remained the dominant transactional denomination across the Carnatic.

The half pagoda denomination in gold was struck at fractional weight specifically to service smaller commercial transactions in a region where European trading companies were already beginning to dictate monetary terms.