Are Indians Extremely Intelligent or Extremely Stupid: The Testimony of India's Coinage

 

 

Are Indians Extremely Intelligent or Extremely Stupid:

The Testimony of India's Coinage

Shrikant G. Talageri

 

I know Indians are supposed to be among the most intelligent people in the world − or rather, are supposed to include among themselves some of the most intelligent people in the world. This is proved not only from the fact that some of the most basic and fundamental scientific inventions, to name just one, such as the zero-based decimal system with ten symbols, were invented in ancient India, but also from the fact that in every modern country which has people of Indian origin in large numbers, these Indians generally stand out from the rest of the population (local populations as well as other immigrant populations) in almost everything: in scientific professions and occupations (IT professionals, medical professionals, space scientists, mathematicians, professors, etc.), in sobriety of lifestyle, as well as in intellectual events like spellathons and chess.

Yes, we have a great deal to be proud of as Indians when it comes to intelligence and intellectual capacities. In this respect, we are often compared to Jews, who likewise shine out wherever, and in whichever field, they make their appearance. It is no wonder that India and Israel, as so many people have always known would be the case, stand out as natural allies in so many things.

But, my bubble of national pride in our great intelligence capacities and capabilities always suffers an extremely sharp puncture whenever I happen to encounter (which is many times every single day) the metal coins which represent our national currency; and I am left wondering whether, after all, we Indians are perhaps actually amongst the stupidest and most inefficient people in the world. It is just not possible that a nation of intelligent people could possibly be deliberately encouraging and fostering, over a period (now) of nearly eight decades of "Independence",  regimes where the people in charge of minting the coins of the realm are so abysmally and excruciatingly stupid (unless they are part of a secret conspiracy to deliberately disrupt and destabilize Indian currency in a new and subtle way as yet unsuspected by the intelligence experts who are supposed to be guarding India from destabilizing forces) that their main aim in minting coins seems to be to throw the common Indian into a continuous tizzy over the actual value of every particular Indian coin that he is handling! Instead of improving, the situation seems to be getting progressively worse with each passing day, and there is not a whimper of protest either from the common man who faces the brunt of this every day or from the intellectual vigilantes who (claim to, or aim to) have their eyes open to catch every flaw in every system!

 

Every country, so far as my stick-at-home-in-India knowledge goes, has always been improving the state of its metal currency, both in terms of terminologies and in terms of the coins itself. Britain (which ruled India till 1947) had quite a medley of coins in its own country to begin with, and it followed a more clumsy (non-decimal) system of divisions:

a) The lowest unit of currency was one penny.

b) 12 pennies made up one shilling.

c) 20 shillings (i.e. 240 pennies) made up one pound/sovereign.

To make things more complicated, there were other terms for various divisional and combination denominations:

a) 1/4 penny made up one farthing.

b) 2 shillings (24 pennies) made up one florin.

c) 2 shillings and 6 pennies (30 pennies) made up one half-crown.

d) 5 shillings (60 pennies) made up one crown.

e) 21 shillings (252 pennies) made up one guinea.

In 1971, the British currency was fully decimalized, and now there were only two units of currency:

a) The lowest unit of currency was one new penny.

b) 100 new pennies made up one pound sterling.

[After 1981, and the stabilization of the new decimal system, the word new was dropped].

Thus there was considerable reform (in the form of standardization and simplification) in the British currency.

 

In India, leaving aside various forms of currency which may have been in use in different parts of the country since ancient or at least medieval times, we can start the story with the currency in use in British India, as of 1937. As within Britain itself, the currency in India was equally jumbled and non-decimal..

The lowest unit of currency was one pice (paisa).

But the coins as issued in 1939 were as follows:

a) 1/3 pice.

b) 1/2 pice.

c) 1 pice.

d) 2 pice made up a half anna.

e) 4 pice made up one anna.

f) 8 pice made up two annas.

g) 16 pice or 4 annas made up a quarter rupee.

h) 32 pice or 8 annas made up a half rupee.

i) 64 pice or 16 annas made up one rupee.

j) 5 rupees made up 1/3 mohur.

k) 10 rupees made up 1/2 mohur.

l) 15 rupees made up one mohur.

Thus there were four units of currency: pice, anna, rupee, mohur., combined in different non-decimal ways as above, with a spate of coins representing different combinations.

After 1947, the newly Independent India carried on a transitional system till around 1957, after which Indian currency was fully decimalized. In the new system after 1957, there were only two units of currency:

a) The lowest unit of currency was one paisa.    

b) 100 paisa made up one rupee.

[Although anachronistic and not mathematically correct, 25 paise continued to be referred to, for a long time to come, in popular parlance, as four annas, and 50 paise as eight annas].

Thus, as in the British currency (but 14 years before it) there was considerable reform (in the form of standardization and simplification) in the Indian currency.

 

But the same cannot be said about the coinage.

If we see the initial years and for a long time to come (although there were always constant changes being made in the shape, size, design and color/material of the coins), there was a very logical and simple and, most important of all, a user-friendly, trend in coin-minting in India: the different denominations of coins were distinguished from each other in size, shape and color (i.e. metal content) in such a basic way that even a child, a blind or short-sighted person, or an illiterate or dull-witted person, was easily able (without performing mental or ocular gymnastics) to immediately recognize the exact denominational value of any coin that he/she had in hand.

Thus, to begin with, the main coins in use were of the denominations 1-paisa, 2-paisa, 5-paisa, 10-paisa, 25-paisa and 50-paisa. 1-rupee coins were rare (mostly notes were used). in the middle, for a short while, 3-paisa coins were introduced. And, at a certain point, also 20-paisa coins were introduced. All of these, even when they had variants in certain of the features (and of course in the designs on them), were immediately recognizable and distinguishable from each other.

To begin with, the coins had different shapes (and different denominations in the same shape had distinct, and immediately noticeably different, sizes. Note, the sizes seen in this article are not exactly as per the actual coins) :

2-paisa and 10-paisa coins had wavy-surfaces:

      

3-paisa coins had a hexagonal shape:

  

 5-paisa coins had a square shape:

20-paisa coins were round, but yellow (brass) in color, and had a distinctive size:

1-paisa coins were also round, but of a tiny size, and yellow (brass) or red (copper) in color:

   

25-paisa, 50-paisa and 1-rupee coins were all round, and all generally steel-colored, but in three very distinctive sizes: small, middle and large respectively:

    

     

Of course, changes continued to be made (in designs, but also in materials: for some time in the middle, lightweight aluminium coins were minted for various denominations: note that the 3-paisa coin above was also of aluminium), but even then, the different denominations of coins continued to be distinguishable from each other.

 

The great change came in this century, when, due to continuous inflation and the falling purchase-value of Indian currency, the very concept of paisa started to become redundant: in 2011, all currencies of 25-paisa and less were abolished. Shortly afterwards, 50-paisa coins also ceased to be in use (although apparently not officially? By a meaningless play on words, it is officially stated that 50-paisa and even 25-paisa coins continue to be "legal tender". But you cannot use them anywhere and no-one will take them, although it is claimed "coin-collectors" on the internet are in the market for them!!).

So basically, India is now in the position of having only one unit of currency: the rupee.

 

With the complete extinction of the paisa, Indian coins are now in the denominations of 1-rupee, 2-rupees, 5-rupees, 10-rupees and 20-rupees. As of now, there are no coins of higher denominations, so far as I am aware. [However little can be said of the future if lower-rupee-denominations become as valueless as the old paisa denominations, with the continuous progress of accelerating inflation and falling purchase-value of rupees]. So there are only five denominations of coins at present.

It would have been very easy, for the authorities who mint Indian coins, to make coins of these five denominations in different shapes, colors and sizes on the lines of the different old paisa coins. But all the five denominations of coins are round in shape.

The two bigger coins, the 10-rupee and 20-rupee coins, are both of exactly the same size, and have combinations of the same two colors: the 10-rupee coins have an inner circle in steel color surrounded by an outer ring in yellow (brass) color, while the 20-rupee coins have an inner circle in yellow (brass) color surrounded by an outer ring in steel color. Needless to say, it is not uncommon for people to inadvertently give or take 10-rupee coins taking them to be 20-rupee coins, or vice versa.

The 5-rupee coins are in many different sizes (diameter-wise as well as by thickness), and while most of them are in yellow (brass) color, there is a large number of coins in steel color as well. While the different yellow (brass) colored varieties are still reasonably easily identifiable as 5-rupee coins, some of the steel colored varieties are often confused with 2-rupee or even 1-rupee coins.

But the worst case is in respect of the 1-rupee and 2-rupee coins. Both these coins are found in at least five or six different sizes (some coinciding with the old and abolished 25-paisa and 50-paise coins in size), and as many of these sizes coincide with each other (i.e. both 1-rupee coins and 2-rupee coins are of the same size),and all are round in shape,the mistaking of 1-rupee coins for 2-rupee coins, and vice versa, is a regular occurrence among the common people who use these coins. Or else, of course, every person handling a large number of 1-rupee coins and 2-rupee coins has to spend time in carefully inspecting every coin carefully before giving or taking it.

 

Why is it that instead of making things easier and more convenient and user-friendly for the common man, the authorities who mint coins in India seem to spend all their time making things more and more difficult, inconvenient and user-unfriendly by the day?

Somewhere at the beginning, I wondered whether all this is "part of a secret conspiracy to deliberately disrupt and destabilize Indian currency in a new and subtle way as yet unsuspected by the intelligence experts who are supposed to be guarding India from destabilizing forces". Of course, even I realize that is a bit far-fetched. But then what is the reason for this persistent and continuously deteriorating situation? Recent 1-rupee and 2-rupee coins, instead of showing the figure 1 or 2 clearly in big size in the middle of one side of the coin, show the figure in small size in an obscure corner of one side of the coin, to make things more difficult!

Is it just extreme stupidity and inefficiency in our authorities? or is it just sadistic pleasure in harassing the common man, since it is not likely that elites would have much use for "small" coins? Or is it just a ploy to make the use of coins so cumbersome that everyone feels forced to stop using coins altogether, and has to compulsorily take recourse to digital transactions, thereby forcibly moving towards a cashless economy?

The whole thing is a mystery to me, but since this seems to be a matter no-one seems bothered to even take note of, I feel it necessary to record my strong views on the subject.