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| 1 Indian anna | |
|---|---|
| Obverse: Crownedbust ofGeorge VI, with letteringGeorge VI King Emperor. | Reverse: Year of minting and face value in numeral, English, Urdu, Bengali, Telugu and Devanagari scripts. |
| 125,548,000 coins minted (1918 to 1940) incopper-nickel | |
| One Quarter anna. | |
|---|---|
| Obverse:King George V crowned head surrounded by lettering "GEORGE V KING EMPEROR" at the periphery. | Reverse: Denomination and year surrounded by wreath. Lettering "ONE QUARTER ANNA INDIA 1933". |
| 1,681,276,200 coins minted from 1912 to 1936. | |
Ananna (orānna) was acurrency unit formerly used inBritish India, equal to1/16 of arupee.[1] It was subdivided into fourpices or twelvepies (thus there were 192 pies in a rupee). When the rupee was decimalised and subdivided into 100 (new)paise, one anna was therefore equivalent to6+1/4paise. The anna wasdemonetised as a currency unit when Indiadecimalised its currency in 1957, followed by Pakistan in 1961. It was replaced by the 5-paise coin, which was itself discontinued in 1994 and demonetised in 2011. The term anna is frequently used to express a fraction of1⁄16.
Anna is derived from theSanskritअन्न, meaning "food".
There was a coin of one anna, and also half-anna coins of copper and two-anna pieces of silver.[2] With the rupee having been valued to 1s 6d[3] and weighing 180 grains as a 916.66 fine silver coin,[4] the anna was equivalent to1+1/8d (one penny and half a farthing). Hence the 2 anna silver coins were of low weight (22.5 grains = 1.46 g).
Anna-denominated postage stamps were issued during theBritish Raj by the government of British India as well as by severalprincely states, and after independence until decimalisation of the currency by India and Pakistan.
The first number is the number of rupees, the second is the number of annas (1/16), the third is the number of paisas (1/64), and the fourth is the number of pies (1/192). Examples are given below.