RUPIA: COIN OF PORTUGUESE INDIA
1 rupia, 1935: Portuguese India
Portuguese India (1505-1961) — Portuguese colonial possessions on the Hindustan peninsula founded six years after the discovery in 1498 of the sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the Kingdom of Portugal. It consisted of a string of military forts and maritime ports scattered along the coasts of the Indian Ocean (Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Calcutta, Daman and Diu...).
ESTADO DA INDIA: the official name of Portuguese India in Portuguese.
1 rupia.
The provisional Coat of arms of the Portuguese India before it had got a uniform style together with arms of other Portuguese Empire's colonies following 1935. This temporary coat of arms represented Portuguese India at the Portuguese colonial exhibition in Porto in 1934.
ALMADA: micro sign towards the left of the waves of the Coat of arms (Almada — city, located on the Tagus River, on the opposite bank from Lisbon; I don't know why this inscription is indicated here).
REPUBLICA PORTUGUESA: Portuguese Republic.
Cross of the Order of Christ as the supporter of the Portuguese Coat of arms in the badge of the Order of the Colonial Empire (a colonial order of knighthood, to reward services by soldiers and civilians in the Portuguese colonies in Asia and Africa).
Lisbon Mint (the capital and largest city of Portugal).
Mintage: 300.000.
- Silver (0.917): 31 mm - 11.68 g
- Reference price: 24.2$
COIN RUPIA — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- PORTUGUESE INDIA (18th-20th centuries): rupia = 16 tanga
- ITALIAN SOMALILAND (1910-1921): rupia = 64 bese
RUPIA as coin name.
Rupia — historical colonial coin. In essence, it is a variety of the classic rupee.
It was produced during the 18th-20th centuries on the territory of the Asian and African dependent possessions of Portugal and Italy, — respectively, on the lands of India and Somalia.
The inscription in the Latin symbols RUPIA first appeared on the silver coins of Portuguese India of the 18th century issued in Goa. In the 19th century, the issue of this denomination continues there, already with the inscription RUPIA GOA. Coins of this local type are quite rare. The rupia of Portuguese India of the late 19th and early 20th centuries of the mints of Calcutta (India) and Lisbon (Portugal) are considered more common among numismatists.
Also, the denomination of rupia is indicated on the silver coins of Italian Somaliland of the beginning of the 20th century. We are talking about 1/4 (QUARTO DI RUPIA), 1/2 (MEZZA RUPIA) and 1 (UNA RUPIA) Somali rupia.
As for the origin of the numismatic term "rupia", in this case it is only a Portuguese and Italian spelling of the name of the popular ancient Indian coin rupee. A similar situation comes to mind with the coin names of Maldivian rufiyaa and Indonesian rupiah previously added to this website.
By the way, in our Ukrainian language all the mentioned related names (rupee, rufiyaa, rupiah, rupia) are translated by a single word — РУПІЯ.
