1 Pagoda

The Madras Pagoda was not a British invention — it was inherited. The East India Company continued striking it because the coin was already trusted currency across the Coromandel Coast, where it had circulated under successive South Indian dynasties for centuries. Discontinuing it would have been commercially suicidal. The Company simply took over the dies and the denomination, minting at Madras under arrangements that blended colonial administration with deep local monetary habit.

Production finally ended when Company currency was rationalized following the 1806 reforms that pushed toward a unified rupee standard across presidencies.