Anna (monetary subunit)

Common card · No. 450333

An anna (or ānna) was a currency unit formerly used in British India, equal to ⁠1/16⁠ of a rupee. It was subdivided into four pices or twelve pies (thus there were 192 pies in a rupee). When the rupee was decimalised and subdivided into 100 (new) paise, one anna was therefore equivalent to ⁠6+1/4⁠ paise. 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 1⁄16. Anna is derived from the Sanskrit अन्न, meaning "grain". 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 ⁠1+1/8⁠d (one penny and half a farthing). Hence the 2 anna silver coins were of low weight (22.5 grains = 1.46 g). Anna-denominated postage...

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