Thank you IndianGoldEagle for your post.
Silver Chukram of Ayilyam Tirunal Ramavarma (1860-1880).
The upper image is its obverse and is called the Kaliyan design. Reverse shows a two branched floral design with a central bud at the junction of the branches.
There are a few interesting things about these Silver Chukrams.
1. The founder of the state of Travancore, Anizham Tirunal Marthandavarma issued silver chukrams
This had the Kaliyan design on the obverse and a crescent with some lines and dots below that on the reverse.
2. Rani Gowri Lekshmi Bai (1810-15, as regent) issued a proclamation and added a floral design below the crescent and above the lines and dots.
It had two branches with three buds at each end. Colloquially, these coins came to be called "flowered chukram".
3. Ayilyam Tirunal Ramavarma (1850-80) added another dot at the bifurcation point of the branches.
4. As it was very difficult to count these tiny coins one by one, people used a measuring plate made of wood.
These wooden measures were made with small holes punched on a side with a diameter of the coin denomination to be measured. They were deep just enough to accommodate only coin per hole. This measure shown has 400 holes (20 x 20) punched into it. When large numbers are to be measured, coins were placed on the plate and then wiped the top from a side to the other, every hole got filled with only one coin each. The excess was removed from the top and one such measure would be four hundred chukrams!
There were different types of plates to measure different denominations like cash and panam. Similarly, plates intended for each denomination were made to count different numbers like 100, 250, 400 or 500.
These were used in the treasuries, coin mints and other places where large sums had to be accounted!
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Posted 12/24/2023 11:49 am
