Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
2 1/2 Cash
| Issuer | Madras Presidency |
|---|---|
| Year | 1807 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Milled |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Central field displays the denomination inscribed in two South Indian scripts: Tamil legend reading 'Idu 2 1/2 kasu' and Telugu legend reading 'Idi 2 1/2 kasulu', both conveying the meaning 'This is two and a half cash.' The bilingual inscriptions are arranged within the field and enclosed by a raised beaded circle, the surrounding field left plain. |
| Reverse script | Tamil/Telugu |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Madras Presidency's fractional cash denominations occupied an awkward administrative position — the cash itself was a tiny unit of account inherited from indigenous South Indian monetary practice, and the 2½ cash was an attempt to bridge that system with British decimal ambitions that never quite resolved cleanly. The East India Company's Madras establishment was still negotiating its own internal coinage standards in 1807, years before the consolidation efforts that followed the 1835 unification of Indian coinage under the Crown.