In Tamil, பணம் is pronounced as "panam" which means money. Tamil doesn't have an English equivalent of F, so ப doubles up as either a p sound or an f sound (note that ப is also used for the letter B!). Hence, பணம் was also used to indicate "fanam". In modern Tamil, you can use ஃ to soften ப to represent the letter F. So, ஃபணம் பணம் is literally "fanam panam" or "fanam money". Been going through my older collection this weekend photographing things I haven't seen in 5 years or so. Among them is a collection of fanams. Here is one that you normally don't see, a Western Gangas fanam. For comparison of size, I also took a picture of a multiple dirham. The interesting thing about this fanam, is that it has a test cut on this tiny little coin! Can't imagine how someone would have cut this without injuring themselves, its that tiny. I'll try to add some more of the fanams to this thread as I get the attributions done. In the meantime, go ahead and add your ஃபணம் பணம்! Western Gangas: Anonymous (ca. 1000-1327) AV Fanam (MNI 703; MSI 195-96) Obv: Caparisoned elephant standing right Rev: Ornamental floral scroll
Should have taken the dimensions . The fanam is about 4-6mm and the multiple dirham should be about 45-49mm.
Had to photograph it using a Poland Springs bottle cap! Couldn't position it properly, so used the cap to rotate the coin. Its too small to handle and hence, I don't understand why anyone would take the time to test cut a coin like this. Imagine doing this for a bag of 100 coins or so! Here is another fanam that I was photographing using the same bottle cap:
Today I learned there are such things as multiple dirhams. (Well, it's not my bailiwick after all.) Great coins and a great photo! A+
In the second coin, its an abstract design representing Kali. My copy of Herrli is in storage, which goes into these coin types in detail. I'll dig it out when I start posting the other fanams...
Wow, eight hours and no one has posted another fanam? The identification below is mostly a guess; I don't have Herrli and there aren't any online fanam databases I know of. I uploaded my example to Zeno and it is the only one. Ghorpades of Gooty. Ramdurg. Gold Fanam, 0.36g, 4mm Obv: Cobra snake Rev: nagari inscription "ShriRam Durg" Herrli 14.10. Wig-Ma T3. Note: These coins were stuck by both Polygar rulers of Kodikonda and later by Hyder Ali and the Marathas. Also known as Soobaroye fanam. Note: Identified in Maheshwari-Wiggins as a coin of Kodikonda mint but now attributed to Ramdurg. Kodikonda is in Anantapur dristrict of Andra Pradesh. See this worldofcoins.eu post
Crazy on that test cut - thanks for the language lesson. I tried figuring out some Brahmi script on a Damajadasri III of the Western Kshatrapas but didn't get very far so I'm sure Tamil is just as far out of my comfort zone. Got this as part of a trade with @lordmarcovan a while back and I just now took it out of its Mylar 2x2 that was taped up so it wouldn't go MIA. Our assumption was this is a fantasy fanham.
I have a fanam from Mysore, but it's much more modern, dated AH 1200 (ca. 1785-86 AD), from the reign of the famous Tipu Sultan. PCGS gave it an MS62 grade. It looks like a speck in the holder, which I presently lack a picture of. It appears they got the dated side upside-down in the TrueView image.
Here's the one that @dadams posted, as seen on my fingertip. As mentioned, I suspect this is a relatively modern fantasy issue, but with the little elephant and the pretty, hot pink toning, it's fun.
OMG! Does it hurt? Is it infected??? Hope you are ok! (Sorry, just HAD to harass you...) No fanum... this is close, but is twice as big: Carthage - Zeugitana AV 1-10th Stater-Shekel 350-320 BCE 0.94g 7.5mm Palm- Horse Head SNG COP 132
I love those little AV Fanams. I have 1/4 Fanams from Western Gangas/ Kadambas of Hangal/ Mughal Empire.....
I have a modest collection of the most common fanam types, but not many imaged. Far from ancient or even medieval, one of my smallest (5mm) and prettiest is from the early 1800s Kingdom of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wodeyar III Obv: Lion head avatar of Vishnu Rev: Garbled legend I'm still up in the air on these, but I have a half dozen purported "fractional fanams" at 2mm and so small they only register on my scale as 0.6 grain, so under 0.04g. I have heard it said with equal conviction that these are genuine medieval coins, and that they are modern fantasy issues produced just a few years ago.
