1 Chuckram - Chithira Thirunal Bala Rama Varma II Nickel Pattern

Travancore experimented with nickel coinage in the late 1930s under pressure from wartime material constraints and shifting colonial monetary policy, but the kingdom's traditional shell-silver-and-copper hierarchy proved resistant to modernization. This pattern was never adopted for circulation. Bala Rama Varma II's reign was administratively dominated by his Dewan, Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, whose centralizing ambitions ultimately accelerated Travancore's controversial and contentious accession to the Indian Union in 1949.