The Coins of Tranquebar Danish East India 1620-1845

Go to the complete catalog of the coins of Tranquebar

Links to the pages about Coins, medals and other stuff of Tranquebar

The trade was maintained with purchased pieces of eight which could be exchanged for Indian silver and gold coins on demand. The treaty with the nayak of Tanjore did not give the Danes the right to mint their own coins at Tranquebar. In fact no permission was needed for minting small coins as long as they were for use only within their own territory.

During the first 80 years or so, the smallest payments and trading transactions in the colony e.g. the fee for a stand and payment of duty for importing and exporting goods were enable by minting coins of the value of 1 kas and some few of the value of 2 kas, mainly in lead but a few in copper and from 1689 exclusively in copper. During the reign of Frederik IV the first silver coins were minted as well as 2, 4 and 10 kas coins in copper.

Tranquebar is the only place outside Denmark where the Danes minted extensively for their own local use. Many of the coins have inscription with Danish ship names or the name of a Danish Town. From Frederik III many of the coins bear the Danish coat-of-arms as inscription. There are minted several diffrent types (kas) in lead from the kings Christian IV to Christian V, and copper-coins from Frederik III to Christian VIII. Silver-coins are minted from Fredrik IV to Frederik VI and one gold-coin from Christian VII. The last Danish coin minted in Tranquebar, are a copper 4 kas from 1845, the same year Tranquebar was sold to England.

The links on different mint names are for my page with more explanation of the word. Here you also can find explanation of different inscriptions on the coins.

The numbering in the text; UBJ = Uno Barner Jensen, "Danish India, Tranquebar Coins, Market Values 1996" and Sieg, Siegs Møntkatalog 2000 and KM = Krause Mishler, World Coins (last known numbering).

You can read more about the Danish East India settlements in India and about the coins in the book: Danish East India, Trade Coins and the Coins of Tranquebar.

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© 1996 - 2000 Uno Barner Jensen

Last updated 01-07-01 by Uno Barner Jensen