INDIA TRAVANCORE gold fanam
$50.00
INDIA, TRAVANCORE, fanam, no date (type used circa 1600-1890s), this is a variety of the Vira Raya type, one side started out as a boar and ended up as a curved knife above dots, the other side was a lion that evolved into a Kali figure, gold, 8mm, 0.29g, stylistically has a lot in common with KM29 of Rama Varma V, 1880-85, probably 1950s restrike made for local bullion buyers, AU
1 in stock
Description
In the 1950s and 60s restrikes of South Indian gold coins were privately produced for sale to local bullion hoarders.
Travancore was a kingdom in South India from about 1729 until 1949. Predecessor dynasties succeeded each other over several centuries until the King of Venad expanded into neighboring territories. He fought and won a war with the Dutch, effectively evicting them from South India. The kings of Travancore were eventually suborned by the British, who beat them in several small wars. Travancore became a dependent Native State until Independence, when it became part of the State of Kerala.
By “Modern World Coins” we mean here, generally, the round, flat, shiny metal objects that people have used for money and still do. “Modern,” though, varies by location. There was some other way they were doing their economies, and then they switched over to “modern coins,” then they went toward paper money, now we’re all going toward digital, a future in which kids look at a coin and say “What’s that?” We’ll say: “We used to use those to buy things.” Kids will ask “How?” The main catalog reference is the Standard Catalog of World Coins, to which the KM numbers refer.
