Currency notes and coins during Baba’s time

Currency notes and coins during Baba's time

Baba used to ask for dakshina from deserving devotees and often returned part of dakshina to the devotee (who considered it holy and kept it in pooja). Also, Baba used to provide regular monitory support to few devotees like Sri Bade baba, Sri Tatya and other visiting devotees. Baba used part of dashina towards fuel needed for dhuni and lamps and gifted money to artists and other people in need. At the end of the day, Baba used to disperse all the dakshina collected during the day. At the time of His mahasamadhi, Baba gifted nine rupees to Smt. Lakshmibai Shinde.

Thus in different chapters of Saisacharitra, we read the mention of the money.

Curious reader of Saisacharitra would wonder – what was the currency system at Baba’s time? Was it currency notes or coins? Importantly, has anyone preserved the holy coins given by Baba?

This articles is an attempt to answer these questions. In this article we look at the currency notes and coins used during Baba’s physical sojourn at Shirdi (approximately 1838 to 1918, reference Wikipedia).

As can be seen in the below maps, Shirdi was part of ‘East India Company’ from 1838 to 1858 and then part of ‘Bombay Presidency’ of British India until Baba’s mahasamadhi in 1918.

British India Kings/Queens between 1838 to 1918:

Currencies and coinages are closely associated with the ruling kings/queens. Let us look at the Kings/Queens who ruled British India in the time period of 1838 to 1918.

1. Queen Victoria: Ruled British India between 1837 to 1901 (East India Company until 1858)

2. King Edward VII: Ruled British India between 1901 to 1910

3. King George V: Ruled British India between 1910 to 1936

British India currency system:

1 Rupee = 16 Annas

1 Anna = 4 Pice

1 Pice = 3 Pies

Reference: “https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/restrospectcoins.aspx”

Currency Notes

British India Issues commence with the Paper Currency Act of 1861 which gave the Government the monopoly of note issue in India.

Victoria Portrait Series:

The first set of British India notes were the ‘Victoria Portrait’ Series issued in denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100, 1000.

Underprint Series:

The Victoria Portrait series was withdrawn and replaced by the unifaced ‘Underprint Series’ which were introduced in 1867.

Between 1903 an 1911, notes of denomination 5, 10, 50 and 100 were released.

Small Denomination Notes:

Compulsions of the first World War led to the introduction of paper currency of small denominations. Rupee One was introduced on 30th November, 1917.

References: Refer to “https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/pm_britishindia.aspx” under “Currency Museum->Paper Money->British India” for more details and images of the currency notes.

Coins

Queen Victoria coins: India was ruled by ‘East India Company’ until 1858, coins issued until this time had ‘East India Company’ on them.

Young queen Victoria series (1837 to 1861):

Mature queen Victoria series (1862 to 1901):

King Edward VII coins:

King George V coins:

References: Refer to https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/pm_britishindia.aspx” under the “Currency Museum->Coinage->British India” for more details and images of coins.

Coins given by Baba to Devotees

Here are few images of coins given by Baba to devotees:

As we are on the topic of coins, a unique incident with dakshina needs to be mentioned here. This incident is mentioned in the Sai Sacharitra. Sri Waman Narvekar brought a coin and wanted to have it consecrated by Baba. On one side of it were engraved the figures of Rama, Laxman and Sita and on the other side the figure of Maruti with folded hands. He offered it to Baba with the hope that He would consecrate it with His touch and return it with Udi. Baba took the coin and then gave it to Sri Shama and asked him to keep it in his pooja. Following is the picture of this coin. Possibly, this coin was not a currency but a holy artifact.