Fanam
Fanam , also Panam , is the name of a coin that was widespread in large parts of southern India and Ceylon / Sri Lanka. The origin of the coin is around the 9th century. It is tiny and was minted in gold . Their weight was around 0.35 g, which corresponds to the weight of a seed of the red sandalwood tree (Tamil Manjadi , Latin Adenanthera pavonina ).
The peak of the spread of the coin was around the 16th century. Since then it has also been minted in silver, partly alloyed with copper and a small amount of gold. The prevailing European colonial powers such as England, France (in Pondicherry , there Fanon called), the Netherlands and Denmark (in Tranquebar , Fano called) marked the coin in silver.
With the standardization of the Indian coin system carried out in 1835 by the English colonial administration, the fanam lost its importance and was replaced by the Indian rupee .
Silver fanams were minted in Travancore until 1946 .