Indian Bull anna

Half anna, 1950

One anna, 1950

2 anna , 1950

Circlated for a short time in the 1950s, the anna series of republic India had a bull on all the anna coins, and I still haven't been able to figure out why the bull features on them, I believe the bull is probably from the seal found at Mohenjodaro and Harappa, though it could also be there because most of our population was involved in agriculture where the bull plays an important role, in ploughing and all. The animal featuring on the anna series is called a Zebu. The zebu has been used extensively in India as a riding and draft animal. It has different subspecies and it is found in large and extensive regions of South Asia and also Africa.

The anna series was replaced by the paisa series and the naye paise. 100 naye paise were now equal to one rupee. Earlier, 16 paise made one anna and 16 annas made one rupee, with the coming of the naye paise system, the anna system became obsolete. The naye paise came to be called simply paise.

Note: Before India became a republic, and after the independence, some tokens called jain tokens were circulated to some extent as one anna and two anna coins in 1947. They had the same shape and as those of one anna and two anna shown above.