Complete Art and Culture | LEC 16: History of Coins and Currency | GS History by Aadesh

History of Coins and Currency System in India Have we ever thought that what happens if there is no money or currency? Money is a common medium of exchange which is issued by the central government of any country. Today paper money and digital currency are popular but for a long time trade and exchange was in coins. Friends, in this video we will trace the history of coins in India and will try to know how over the ages coins presently evolved in popular paper currency. So let's start the video with the importance of coins and currency. Importance of Coins and Currency Friends, money is a common medium of exchange. It means that we can use it to exchange goods and services. Where money is a popular term, money used in any country is called the currency of that country. For example, India's currency is rupees and America's dollars, coins, paper currency, digital currency are all different formats of currency. Historically, when the currency system was not invented, then trade and exchange was done using the barter system. In the barter system, people exchanged goods instead of goods. For example, if I have food grains and I want clothes, then I will have to find such a person who has clothes but he needs food grains. Obviously, such an exchange will take a lot of time and effort and it will be difficult to determine the correct value of food grains and clothes. Someone will ask for two pairs of clothes instead of one kilogram of rice, no one will agree on three. To get out of such problems, man invented currency. Currency became a common medium of exchange, which increased trade, production, exchange, etc. It is believed that trade and agriculture have played a very important role in the civilizational progress of man because it brought about a kind of societal change. A man who used to live by hunting and gathering, could now live a settled life in towns and villages. Gradually, material progress took place Let's look at the history of any civilization. Everyone's trajectory or movement flows in the same direction. In India, the development of the currency system took place gradually, and it is linked to the development of civilization and trade. If we talk about the prehistoric age, then in all three phases, Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic, there is no evidence of the use of currency. In the prehistoric age, man depended on hunting and gathering. There was no evolution of society, due to which goods exchange was very limited. The first use of the currency system is traced in the Harappa civilization. Friends, let's now look at the evolution of the Indian currency system. Ancient Era Friends, as mentioned earlier, the most important use of currency is for trade. Historians have concluded that the oldest long-distance trade in India was the Harappan civilization which started in 3500-1300 BC. Harappans used to trade with their contemporary Mesopotamian civilization, which is located in the present-day Iraq region. But historians have not yet found the coins used in this trade. It is believed that Harappans used seals made of stone for trading. In the present-day Iraq-Syria region, a large number of Harappan seals have been recovered, but historians have not been able to conclusively prove that they were used for trade. Many historians believe that the barter system was used in Harappan, but it does not seem possible to use barter for such a long-distance trade. Therefore, the issue of Harappan coins is still unresolved. And until the Harappan scripts are deciphered, this may remain a mystery. After the Harappans, in the Vedic culture of 1500-600 BC, no conclusive evidence has been found. Rig Vedic people were mostly pastoralists, who were dependent on animals and their produce. Later Vedic people were agriculturalists. Trade and exchange was mostly limited in the Vedic age and it is believed that it was concluded in the form of barter. The first conclusion of the use of conclusive evidence is found around 600 BC. At this time, there was a rule of 16 Mahajanpadas in India. Magadh, Kashi, Avantivajji, etc. were some important Mahajanpadas. Buddhist texts and Panini's eight-chapter copper and silver coins are mentioned. They were also called Karshapan or Panna. These coins were of irregular shape and were punched on top of various symbols which is why they are also called punch-marked coins. The symbols punched on them were different and they differed from Mahajanpada to Mahajanpada. Like Saurashtra punched the symbol of Humpt Bull and Panchal punched the symbol of Swastika on his coins. After the Mahajanpadas, when the All India Empire was established as Mauryan for the first time, trade and economic activities flourished. For flourishing trade, common currency was the most important and the most punched-marked coins were issued during Maurya's time. Maurya used about 450 different types of symbols on his coins. Natural symbols like sun, moon, hills and trees, geometrical figures like circle, rectangle, wheel, human figures and animals were also used. After Maurya's time, Indo-Greeks first issued die-struck coins in India. Where symbols were punched on coins in punch-marked coins, die-struck coins were made in mints using molds. Mints are the places where metals are melted and coins are formed. Due to the use of molds, the shape of the coins became uniform. Indo-Greeks started using portraits on coins issued by the Indo-Greek king Menander. In the history of coins, the Indo-Greek dynasty had an important role of Kushanas, who ruled North India from 1st century A.D. to 4th century A.D. For the first time, Kushanas issued gold coins Kushana coin is special because on one side, the king's portrait, name and title were mentioned and on the other side, the king's favorite deity or god's portrait was mentioned. Kushanas used Brahmi language on their coins. While Guptas started using Sanskrit on coins for the first time. Guptas also issued a lot of gold coins which were called Dinaras. On Guptas' coins, kings were generally shown in combat pose. But some kings also showed their artistic side, like Samudra Gupta and Kumar Gupta were shown playing Veena. After seeing the history of the evolution of coins in the ancient era, let's see its history in the medieval age. Medieval era By the end of 12th century A.D., Delhi was ruled by Muslim rulers. Coins issued by them were inspired by Islamic history and culture. Turkish rulers of the empire replaced Indian kings' royal designs with Islamic calligraphy. In Islamic culture, there were restrictions on human figures and portraits. That's why calligraphy is seen more in the coins issued Coins during the Delhi Sultanate coins were generally issued in gold, silver, and copper. Higher value coins were called Tanka and lower value coins were called Jital. In 1526, after the start of the Mughal Empire, a unified and standardized currency system was established. But the currency system of the Mughals was actually copied from Sher Shah Suri from 1540 to 1555. Sher Shah ruled Delhi for only 15 years. But in such a short time, he did a lot of administrative reforms. The currency reform of Sher Shah was also one of them. Sher Shah standardized the tri-metallic system in which three types of metals were used to make coins. First were gold coins, which were called Mohars. A standard weight of one Mohar was fixed at 169 grams and it was the highest value currency. Second were silver coins, which were called Rupees. A standard weight of one Rupee was fixed at 178 grams. The format of Rupee coin introduced ran till the early 20th century. We can also call it the precursor of modern Rupee. The third type of coins were copper coins, which were called Dams. The price of one silver rupee was up to 40 copper Dams. The Mughals had introduced the tri-metallic system By the time of the modern era, India was under British rule. But by 1857, the British mostly used the Mughal currency. After seeing the evolution of the currency in the medieval age, let's see its evolution in British rule and independent India. During British rule and independent India. In 1717, Britishers took permission from the Mughal ruler Farooq Siyar to mint silver coins. The gold coins minted by the Britishers were called Carolina, silver coins were called Angelina and copper coins were called Kaproon. In 1717, the Mughal Empire was not as strong as it was during Akbar's time, but it still had a lot of importance. Therefore, the British could not issue coins without Mughal order. But the Battle of Plassey of 1757 and the Battle of Buxar of 1764 had made the Britishers the real rulers of India. Even now, they used Mughal money. But to print, they did not have to take permission from the Mughals. After the revolution of 1857, Rupee was declared the official currency of India. But to portray British sovereignty, instead of Mughal calligraphy, the portrait of King George VI was used. After this, for the first time in 1935, the Reserve Bank of India was established to manage When India got freedom from the British, many changes were brought in the currency system. On 15 August 1950, the ANA system was launched. This was the first Swadeshi coinage system of independent India. One rupee was divided into 16 parts and each part was called ANA. With the new ANA system, the portrait of British King was removed from Indian coins and Ashoka's Lion Capital took its place. The second major change was brought in 1955 with the Coinage Amendment Act in which the Decimal Coin System was introduced. In this system, one rupee was divided into 100 parts which was called Paisa. In this way, one rupee was divided into 100 parts and each part was called Paisa. To differentiate the new system from the old one, it was called New Rupee and the old ANA system was called Old Rupee. So friends, from the ancient era to the modern era, the evolution of the coins and currency system took place. For the first time in India, paper currency was issued by the British Government in 1861 in which a paper currency of 10 rupees denomination was issued. There are many benefits For example, it is easy to carry and does not cost much Today, paper notes of rupees 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 2000 are used. Due to ease of usage, paper currency is generally issued in higher denominations. Coins of lower denominations like 1 rupee, 2, 5 and 10 are issued. After paper currency, digital money is the new innovation of the currency system. 21st century is the age of digital India. Today, digital money is transferred through mobile and internet. By the way, there is not much difference between a digital wallet and a physical wallet, but it has made it very easy to transfer money over a long distance. After digital money, another new innovation is cryptocurrency. In India, its adoption is also happening rapidly. The special thing about cryptocurrency is that it is a decentralized currency, that is, it is not issued by the central government. These programmers solve complex mathematical calculations and mine them. Supporters of cryptocurrency believe that it will help to reform the world over currency system and no government will be able to manipulate it. But many people are also misusing cryptocurrency for money laundering and terror financing. In the coming time, there will be more clarity about cryptocurrency. Friends, now let's move to the last part of the video. Summary Friends, in this video, we saw the evolution of currency in India. We saw how the currency system started with punch-marked coins and how new innovations were added over the ages. We also saw how the evolution of currency system started with punch-marked coins and how new innovations were added over the ages. Friends, if India was called the golden bird in ancient times, then the most important role was of long-distance trade. Since the time of Harappa civilization, our traders were doing long-distance trade. The most important ingredient in facilitating long-distance trade is the stable coins and currency system. And Indian kings have tried to give a stable currency system throughout history. Friends, Shashi Tharoor in his book An Era of Darkness The British Empire in India says that before the arrival of the British, India controlled 23% of the world's GDP. And the goods of India used to go to every corner of the world. From this we can understand that in the ancient medieval era, our trade and currency system was so sophisticated. Today, India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies. And the attempt is to be among the top three by 2030. For this, trade, exports, services, manufacturing, all sectors will have to contribute to India's growth.