The British East India Company established initial settlement in 1612 at Surat, in Gujarat. In the mid-17th century, the European style coinage did not gain popularity and thus the British sent their bullion to the contemporary Mughal Emperor for minting coins. The official currency since the 15th century in India was ‘paisa’. Paisa is an Urdu term meaning money or cash, ’anna’ was the currency unit in India. The term belonged to the Mughal monetary system. Soon after, the British superseded the Mughal reign in India, they decimalized the currency into ‘rupaiya’. The paisa was named ‘naya paisa’ and ‘nayarupaiya’ henceforth, respectively.

This artwork has a collection of the end of the ‘anna’ series and the old ‘paisa’ series during the British reign. The coins are of different alloys and denominations. An imaginative compilation by the artist shows an embedded document of this time adding to the display and value of this collage.