1/4 Rupee - George VI

The shift to .500 silver in 1940 — halving the fineness from the .917 standard that had held since the nineteenth century — was a direct consequence of wartime metal demands. Britain needed silver for munitions contracts and Lend-Lease obligations, and the Indian coinage bore the cost. The Bombay and Calcutta mints ran at extraordinary capacity through 1942 and 1943 to keep subsidiary coinage in circulation across a subcontinent simultaneously funding and supplying the Allied war effort.

KM#546 pieces from this window are common in lower circulated grades but frequently show uneven surfaces from the debased alloy's behavior under the dies.