1/4 Rupee - Chithira Thirunal Bala Rama Varma II

Travancore maintained its own coinage well into the twentieth century under the paramountcy system, which permitted princely states to issue currency provided it did not directly compete with British Indian coinage in practice. Chithira Thirunal, who acceded at age twelve in 1931 under a regent, was ruling independently by this period — and Travancore's monetary autonomy was already living on borrowed time. Indian independence in 1947 and the subsequent integration of the princely states extinguished the kingdom's mint authority entirely.

The .500 fineness reflects wartime silver economy pressures that affected subsidiary coinage across South Asia from the late 1930s onward.