1 Pagoda Yanaon

Yanaon — a tiny French enclave on the Godavari delta — was one of the least strategically significant of France's Indian possessions, yet the Compagnie des Indes maintained a mint there precisely because the pagoda was the dominant trade currency of the surrounding Deccan and Coromandel markets. Refusing to issue it would have meant conducting commerce entirely on others' terms. The issue spans nearly six decades, through the company's 1769 reorganization under royal control and its final dissolution in 1774.