ATTRIBUTION: Mysore, India, mid 18th century.

SIZE/DIMENSIONS:

Diameter: Diameter: 6 millimeters.

Weight: Weight: 0.37 grams.

CONDITION: Excellent, lightly circulated.

NOTE: Coin is mounted free of charge into your choice of pendant settings, and includes free chain as well (details below or click here ). Default mounting is the bezel wrap mounting shown in 14kt gold fill (5% gold over 95% sterling silver); and an 18" gold-tone chain.

DETAIL: This is a genuine gold fanam issued by the ancient Indian Maratha Empire late in the 17th century. The greater region which included Cochin and Mysore to the South were fabled homes to some of India's greatest dynasties, were known as centers of great wealth, and minted a wide variety of coinage in precious metals. Some of the most collectible were the gold fanams of the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, truly works of art. Averaging about 21kt gold (21/24th's pure gold), this specimen here is in very good condition, only lightly circulated. Please note that the image here is a 500% enlargement. The size and weight of this specimen is indicated above.

The image depicted on one side of the coin is a dagger, though it looks a bit like an axe to Western eyes. The stylized depiction on the opposite side of the coin depicts a "Shardula". Shardulas were demons in the Hindu pantheon, an anthropoid often with a horned lion head, typically depicted with wide-open jaws revealing, bared teeth and a long flattened muzzle. However rather than a lion a Shardula could also be in the form (with the head of) a tiger, a boar, an elephant, or even a dragon. There's a little bit more information about Shardulas here, and there's a collection of ancient depictions of various Shardula forms here, here, here, here, here, and here.

This type of fanam was struck by the Maratha Empire, roughly corresponding with the present-day State of Maharashtra (which includes Bombay). The Marathas were an Indo-Aryan group of Hindu warriors and peasants who created the Maratha Empire, covering a major part of India, in the late 17th and 18th centuries. The region today, includes Bombay as well as the entirety of the state of Maharashtra. The region was splintered into many princely city-states during the medieval period and up through the 17th century when they were united under the leadership of Chhatrapati Shivaji. The Hindu Marathas long had lived in the Desh region around Satara, in the western portion of the Deccan plateau, where the plateau meets the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats mountains.

They had resisted incursions into the region by the Muslim Mughal rulers of northern India. Under their leader Shivaji, the Marathas freed themselves from the Muslim sultans of Bijapur to the southeast, and became much more aggressive and began to frequently raid Mughal territory, ransacking the Mughal port of Surat in 1664. Shivaji proclaimed himself emperor in 1674. The empire's ascendancy was under the Peshwas of the 18th century, when the empire extended from the Indus in present-day Pakistan to Orissa in the east; and from the Punjab to central Karnataka in the south (see the map here where the Maratha controlled portion of India is in yellow).

At its peak, the Maratha Empire established a protectorate over the Mughal Emperor and held political control over the numerous Rajput chieftains of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Central India, as well as Punjab, where the ended Muslim rule over the Sikhs. The capital of the empire was at the Raigad (see their fortress here). This vast empire declined gradually after 1761, and by 1818 most of present-day India had fallen to the British East India Company, though fragmented remainders (quasi-independent princely states) of the Maratha Empire were still extant at the time of the foundation of an independent India in 1947.

Since the Marathas ruled much of India in the period immediately preceding the consolidation of British rule in India, the Maratha states came to form the largest bloc of princely states in the British Raj. During those preceding centuries in which the Marathas were the dominant empire within India, they were responsible for reviving the political power of the Hindus in north India after many centuries of Muslim rule, preventing the spread of the Mughal Empire and associated Islamic culture to south India, which in turn let to the decline of the Mughal Empire. If you would like to learn more about the Maratha Empire, there a couple of good starting points here, here, and here.

Your purchase includes, upon request, mounting of this coin in either pendant style "a" or "b" as shown here. Pendant style "a" is a clear, airtight acrylic capsule designed to afford your ancient coin maximum protection from both impact damage and degradation. It is the most "politically correct" mounting. Style "b" is a bezel wrap mount in either sterling silver or 14kt gold fill. Both pendant styles include a split ring for mounting your pendant onto a silver tone or gold tone chain, also included in the cost of your purchase. Upon request, there are also an almost infinite variety of other pendants which might well suit both you and your ancient coin pendant, and include both sterling silver and solid 14kt gold mountings, including those shown here. As well, upon request, we can also make available a huge variety of chains in lengths from 16 to 30 inches, in metals including sterling silver, 14kt gold fill, and solid 14kt gold. Please note, you must request and specify how you wish your coin mounted, as absent specific instructions to the contrary, the default shipment method is pendant style "b".

HISTORY: The cities of Northern India's Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, date back at least 5,000, probably 10,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier inhabitants created classical Indian culture. Arab incursions starting in the 8th century and Turkish in 12th were followed by European traders beginning in the late 15th century. Although the world's first coins were Greek coins made in Lydia about 640 BC, is seems clear that India and China both invented coins independently within a few centuries of the Lydians, although India officially insists that its first coinage (punch marked issues) were struck in the 8th century B.C. The earliest Indian coins were silver, and it was not until about 100 A.D. that the Kushans, influenced by the Romans, introduced the first Indian gold coin, which was a gold dinar bearing the image of Shiva.

Previously India's "unit of exchange" had been a full grown cow. Coinage presumably developed to make change, something of fractional value which was easier to carry in a pocket. The Suvarna, a gold coin similar to the Persian Daric and Greek Stater substituted the cow in value. Dinara was an Indian gold coin adopted from Roman Dinarius. Silver and bronze metals served for lower value coinage. From the earliest times, the iconography of Northern India's coinage was influenced by other classical cultures including Roman, Greek/Hellenic, and even Alexandrian (Ptolemaic). From the very beginning classical Greek coinage circulated alongside India's earliest punched coinage. India's coinage gained many classical characteristics as a result of the influence of Northern India's Bactrian Greek and early Hellenistic Indo-Greek cultures. Also contributing to the iconography of Indian coin were the Indo-Persian Scythians, Parthians, and Sassianians.

Many Indian states issued small gold coins called Fanams from about the 12th century A.D. onward, peaking in production between about 1700 and 1830 A.D. The later examples, exquisite miniature gold works of art of the 18th and 19th centuries, were struck in various Indian states, where traders preferred gold over silver. Their designs originally had depicted goddesses, animals and artifacts, but were simplified over the centuries to semi-abstract forms. Fanams were the smallest gold coins issued by any of the Indian States. The first references to the fanam are found in Ceylon, in reference to 12th century coinage from the present day Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The most prolific issues of the fanam occurred in Ceylon; and in India, in Mysore and neighboring Cochin. Historically the most significant of these are from Mysore, the only princely kingdom to defy and defeat the fabled British Army during India's pre-colonial history.

SHIPPING: These antiquities come from a number of collections which by and large originated here in Eastern Europe. As well, additional specimens are occasionally acquired from other institutions and dealers, principally in Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. All of these artifacts are now in the United States and are available for immediate delivery via U.S. Mail. All purchases are backed by an unlimited guarantee of satisfaction and authenticity. If for any reason you are not entirely satisfied with your purchase, you may return it for a complete and immediate refund of your entire purchase price. A certificate of authenticity (COA) is available upon request.

Our order fulfillment center near Seattle, Washington will ship your purchase within one business day of receipt of your personal check or money order. If you wish to pay electronically, we accept both PayPal and BidPay. However we ask that you PLEASE WAIT before remitting until we have mutually agreed upon method of shipment and shipping charges and you understand our PayPal limitations and policies (stated here). We will ship within one business day of our receipt of your electronic remittance.

A certificate of authenticity (COA) is available upon request. We prefer your personal check or money order over any other form of payment - and we will ship immediately upon receipt of your check (no "holds"). Please see our "ADDITIONAL TERMS OF SALE."