40 Cash - Krishna Raja Wodeyar

Krishna Raja Wodeyar III reclaimed the Mysore throne in 1799 after the British defeat of Tipu Sultan, though real administrative authority remained firmly with the East India Company's resident at Mysore. The 40 Cash denomination was the workhorse of low-value exchange in the region, and Mysore under Company oversight maintained its own copper coinage partly as a concession to local commercial custom and partly to sustain the fiction of princely autonomy.

The cash system itself traced back through centuries of South Indian monetary practice, with denominations reckoned in multiples that rarely aligned neatly with Company currency — a source of persistent friction in market transactions throughout the period.