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 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
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 ...
. The anna was
demonetised 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
See also
*
Indian coinage
The Coinage of India began anywhere between early 1st millennium BCE to the 6th century BCE, and consisted mainly of copper and silver coins in its initial stage.Allan & Stern (2008) The coins of this period were ''Karshapanas'' or ''Pana''. A ...
*
British Indian coins
British trading posts in the Indian subcontinent were first established by the East India Company (EIC) early in the seventeenth century, which quickly evolved into larger colonies covering a significant part of the subcontinent. Early settlement ...
*
History of the rupee
References
{{Rupee
Historical currencies of India
Coins of India