An anna (or ānna) was a

currency A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general def ...

unit formerly used in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, equal to of a

rupee Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

. It was subdivided into four (old)

Paisa Paisa (also transliterated as ''pice'', ''pesa'', ''poysha'', ''poisha'' and ''baisa'') is a monetary unit in several countries. The word is also a generalised idiom for money and wealth. In India, Nepal, and Pakistan, the ''Paisa'' currently equa ...

or twelve

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...

s (thus there were 192 pies in a rupee). When the rupee was decimalised and subdivided into 100 (new)

paise Paisa (also transliterated as ''pice'', ''pesa'', ''poysha'', ''poisha'' and ''baisa'') is a monetary unit in several countries. The word is also a generalised idiom for money and wealth. In India, Nepal, and Pakistan, the ''Paisa'' currently equa ...

, one anna was therefore equivalent to 6.25

. The anna was

demonetised Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in pa ...

as a currency unit when India decimalised 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 of . ''Anna'' is derived from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

, meaning "food". There was a coin of one anna, and also half-anna coins of copper and two-anna pieces of silver. With the rupee having been valued to 1s 6d and weighing 180 grains as a 916.66 fine silver coin, the anna was equivalent to 9/8 d. Hence the 2 anna silver coins were of low weight (22.5 grains = 1.46 g). Anna-denominated postage stamps were issued during the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

by the government of British India as well as by several

princely states A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...

, and after independence until decimalisation of the currency by India and Pakistan.

Notation

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 below. *1-15-3-2 = 1.9947 *1-8-3 = 1.546 *1-4 = 1.25

Coins

File:Reverse of the copper One Twelfth Anna.jpg, One Twelfth Anna (1/12 Anna) coin of 1903 File:Obverse of the 1906 One Quarter Anna of India portraying the bust of Edward VII.jpg, Obverse of the 1906 quarter anna, with the bust of

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

File:2 Indian anna (1919).jpg, 2 Indian annas (1919). File:Ana Naya Paisa Conversion Table.jpg, Annas - Paisa Conversion Table. Image: East India Company - Quarter Anna 1835.JPG, An 1835 quarter anna.

Stamps

File:1865ca Half India SG54 boxN°2.jpg , Half anna stamp of British India File:A stamp.JPG , One anna stamp of Alwar File:307-Railway-Centenary-India-Stamp-1953.jpg , Two anna stamp of independent India File:Pakistan1948-1952.jpg , One anna and one and a half anna stamps of independent Pakistan

References

{{Rupee Historical currencies of India Coins of India

Notation

Coins

Stamps

See also

References