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1/4 Rupee - Chithira Thirunal Bala Rama Varma II

Issuer Travancore, Kingdom of
Year 1937
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Weight 2.6 g
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Obverse lettering തിരുവിതാങ്കൂര്‍ കാല്‍ രൂപാ
(Translation: Travancore Quarter Rupee)
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Edge Reeded and lettered (BRV)
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Chithira Thirunal Bala Rama Varma ascended the Travancore throne in 1931 at age eighteen under the regency of his mother, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, and ruled through one of the most turbulent decades in the princely state's history. By 1937, Travancore's silver coinage was already operating on borrowed time — the Kingdom would eventually become one of the last holdouts against Indian unification, with Chithira Thirunal's Dewan C.P. Ramaswami Iyer briefly declaring independence in 1947 before popular revolt and political pressure forced accession.

Travancore maintained its own mint at Trivandrum throughout this period, one of very few princely states to do so into the late colonial era.