Ceylonese Fanam
OriginSri Lanka
First Minted1700s
MaterialSilver/Copper
TypeCoin
About Ceylonese Fanam
A small silver coin of the Kandyan Kingdom of Sri Lanka. The fanam was worth 1/12 of a rupee. Featured native Sinhalese designs including the lotus and fish. The Dutch and British also issued fanams in their Sri Lankan territories. The fanam system was complex, with regional variations in weight and purity. Ceylon adopted the British sterling system in 1825, but fanams circulated for decades afterward.
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