Kaliyan Panam - Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma

Marthanda Varma, who ruled Travancore from 1729 to 1758, is credited with transforming a fragmented collection of small principalities into a consolidated state capable of repelling the Dutch East India Company at the Battle of Colachel in 1741 — one of the few military defeats European forces suffered at the hands of an Indian kingdom during that century. The Kaliyan Panam series bearing his name continued well beyond his reign as a dynastic identifier rather than a strictly contemporary issue, which explains the wide attribution window.

At under half a gram, these tiny gold fanams circulated in a regional economy where such denominations handled everyday transactions that larger gold units could not practically serve.