20 Cash

The Madras Presidency 20 Cash was issued under East India Company authority as part of a broader effort to rationalize the chaotic currency situation in southern India, where dozens of local coin types — pagodas, fanam, and their fractions — circulated simultaneously at fluctuating and contested exchange rates. The Company had been minting at Madras since the 1690s, but the early 1800s issues represented a deliberate push toward a more regularized copper coinage for everyday transactions among the local population.

The Soho Mint in Birmingham supplied machinery to the Madras Mint during this period, materially improving striking quality over earlier hand-struck issues.