Madras Mint Early Coinages Silver Fanam et infra 1690 to 1763
|
The
second issue fanams have several interesting features: The number of dots on
the reverse (two or three on the double fanam, and one on the single), and two
styles of design. These features suggest either different times of striking,
and/or different mints. No documentary evidence has been found to clarify this
matter.
In
1706 [1]
the
A
study [2] of
the weight distribution of a number of these fanams and has identified a
variety that has a weight consistent with the second issue, but the cruder
design of the third issue. The following graphs summarise the analysis.
The
graph of single fanam weights show that the 1st issue cannot be
distinguished from the 2nd by the weight alone, whilst the second
graph shows that there are two 3rd issue style double fanams that
clearly fall within the weights of the 2nd issue style coins. A
variety has therefore been added to the 2nd issue coins.
It
will also be noticed that the coins bear different numbers of dots on the
reverse. The significance of this is not known. The dots do not correspond to
value. Possibilities include mint or minter identification marks.