ABSTRACT

Metallic coins, shells or cowries are currency, i.e. media of exchange that are generally and readily accepted in the immediate settlement or discharge of debt. Currency is the most commonly used form of money in day-to-day transactions. Convertible or inconvertible paper money is also currency, but I defer its independent study to later. After outlining the economics of currency money, I present the evolution of India’s currency money, the silver rupee coin, from its introduction in 1542 until 1853, the year in which Lord Dalhousie declared it to be the sole legal tender (apart from copper coins for fractional transactions) in territories under the rule of the English East India Company.