By 1717, the British started to produce Mughal money at the Bombay Mint, with permission from the Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar. The British gold coins were called ‘carolina’; ‘anglina’ was the silver coin, and ‘copperoon’, the copper coins. Tinnies were tin coins.
A century later, the British rose as the most dominant power in the country. In 1835, they enacted the Coinage Act for uniform coinage. As a primary step, coins with images of William IV were issued in the same year.
Following the 1857 revolt, when our first war of independence happened, the British announced ‘rupee’ as the official currency of India. By 1862, currencies with portrait of Queen Victoria were made, and circulated.
During the First World War, there was an acute shortage of silver, and that was when paper currencies were produced in India.
The present day central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, was established in 1935. It is known that the first paper currency issued by the RBI was that of an Rs 5 note, with the portrait of King George VI on it.
