Bhopal 1/8 Rupee KM# Y11
Silver Rev: “Zarb” below “Bhopal” Note: Weight varies: 1.34-1.45 grams.
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Travancore - Tira Kasu -Conch Shell -Type D
Tira kasu is a very small copper or brass piece of 0.6-2.6 grams (in different denominations) used in the erstwhile Venad, now parts of Kerala and Tamilnadu states. Such coins come from riverbeds here even today. They are said to have been issued from the fifteenth century onwards until early twentieth century!In the early periods, they had symbols taken from the Venad Chera coins. They were issued for use as petty cash in market places and domestic needs. Their prints used to be changed every three years by Royal Orders. Following are two passages taken from my earlier posts on Travancore thirakasu. "There are lots of varieties of Thirakasu. Broadly, we can divide them as those found in the eastern part of Venad and those from its western region. Documentation of these coins is very difficult to get. After 1729.AD, we have some literature, but it is very scanty to give us a clear picture of the symbols and the mints. After the area became Travancore under Anizham Tirunal Marthandavarma in the year 1729.AD, there were two known mints. One is at their earlier capital at "Kalkulam", later known as Padmanabhapuram in Tamilnadu. The other was at Trivandrum, the later capital of the state. There could have been some other small unknown mints that operated locally for producing Thirakasu. In any case, they were produced as per some standards and were distributed for petty transactions and people were satisfied with that. Broadly they can be put into three segments by weight - weighing ~2.5gms, ~1.5gms and ~0.5gm.But small coins weighing as low as 200mg are there and the average weight in each segment has wide variations. Surprisingly, all these coins of different weight are called as Thirakasu without any denominational differentiation. This makes it really thrilling to watch!". "She issued a proclamation in 1813.AD to issue copper coins with lotus on one side and Garuda the mythical bird and vehicle of Lord Vishnu on the other side. This was intended for transaction as petty cash in market places. Such coins used to be called "Thirakasu" and are uninscribed coins with images of different devices, birds, animals etc. One pattern used to be replaced with another in three year time.
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