Republic India Coinage 1947 to 1964

India won its independence on 15th August, 1947. During the period of transition India retained the monetary system and the currency and coinage of the earlier period. While Pakistan introduced a new series of coins in 1948 and notes in 1949, India brought out its distinctive coins on 15th August, 1950.

Chronologically, the main considerations influencing the coinage policy of Republic India over time have been:

• The incorporation of symbols of sovereignty and indigenous motifs on independence;
• Coinage Reforms with the introduction of the metric system;
• The need felt from time to time to obviate the possibility of the metallic value of coins rising beyond the face value;
• The cost-benefit of coinisation of currency notes

Independent India Issues could broadly be categorised as

The Frozen Series 1947-1950

This represented the currency arrangements during the transition period upto the establishment of the Indian Republic. The Monetary System remained unchanged at One Rupee consisting of 192 pies.

1 Rupee = 16 Annas

1 Anna = 4 Pice

1 Pice = 3 Pies

The Anna Series

This series was introduced on 15th August, 1950 and represented the first coinage of Republic India. The King's Portrait was replaced by the Lion Capital of the Ashoka Pillar. A corn sheaf replaced the Tiger on the one Rupee coin. In some ways this symbolised a shift in focus to progress and prosperity. Indian motifs were incorporated on other coins. The monetary system was largely retained unchanged with one Rupee consisting of 16 Annas.

Denomination	Metal	Obverse	Reverse
Rupee One	Nickel
Half Rupee	Nickel
Quarter Rupee	Nickel
Two Anna	Cupro-Nickel
One Anna	Cupro-Nickel
Half Anna	Cupro-Nickel
One Paise	Bronze

The Decimal Series

The move towards decimalisation was afoot for over a century. However, it was in September, 1955 that the Indian Coinage Act was amended for the country to adopt a metric system for coinage. The Act came into force with effect from 1st April, 1957. The rupee remained unchanged in value and nomenclature. It, however, was now divided into 100 'Paisa' instead of 16 Annas or 64 Pice. For public recognition, the new decimal Paisa was termed 'Naya Paisa' till 1st June, 1964 when the term 'Naya' was dropped.

Naya Paisa Series 1957-1964

Denomination	Metal Weight Shape Size	Coin
Rupee One	Nickel 10 gms Circular 28 mm
Fifty Naye Paise	Nickel 5 gms Circular 24 mm
Twenty Five Naye Paise	Nickel 2.5 gms Circular 19 mm
Ten Naye Paise	Cupro-Nickel 5 gms Eight Scalloped 23 mm (across scallops)
Five Naye Paise	Cupro-Nickel 4 gms Square 22 mm (across corners)
Two Naye Paise	Cupro-Nickel 3 gms Eight Scalloped 18 mm (across scallops)
One Naya Paisa	Bronze 1.5 gms Circular 16 mm

With commodity prices rising in the sixties, small denomination coins which were made of bronze, nickel-brass, cupro-nickel, and Aluminium-Bronze were gradually minted in Aluminium. This change commenced with the introduction of the new hexagonal 3 paise coin. A twenty paise coin was introduced in 1968 but did not gain much popularity.

Leap yEar eXplained

For some people the leap year has a special significance. This year, for instance, there have been initiatives to encourage people to put that extra day to use helping the planet.

But where does the idea of a leap year come from, and why exactly do we have one?

The second question is a bit easier to answer than the first. Many of you might recall from your school days that a year is not exactly 365 days. It actually takes the planet 365.242 days to complete a revolution around the sun. After four years, those extra .242 days add up to a whole extra day.

Even then it’s not exactly perfect. Obviously, .242 times four is not 1.
We get around this problem by skipping a leap year for three out of four century years. So the year 2000 was a leap year, but the years 2100, 2200 and 2300 will not be.

Like many advancements in civilization, the concept of a leap year came from the Egyptians. The Egyptians first began using a calendar with a leap year during the Ptolemaic dynasty (300-30 B.C.E.) Many people credit Julius Caesar for the use of the leap year in his Julian calendar, but he almost certainly took the ideas from the Egyptians. One legend says that he took the idea from his lover Cleopatra.

When Caesar returned to Rome and implemented the calendar the leap year became popularized. It would remain unchanged until the 16th century A.D.

In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new, but very similar, calendar. As we mentioned earlier, you actually add slightly too much time to the year by adding a day every four years. This results in an unnecessary extra day being added to the calendar once every 128 years. This annoyed Gregory. He believed that this extra day ever century and a quarter had resulted in Christian holidays being celebrated on the wrong days.

So Gregory went ahead and did something about it by inventing the Gregorian calendar, which we still use today. The Gregorian calendar introduced the concept of skipping three of four century years as a leap year, and so keeps the balance a bit better than the Julian calendar.