Even though the British left India in 1947, the coins they issued remained in use till 1950. The first coins made since then belonged to the ‘anna series’. They were traditional in design, and followed the metric system.
Introduced on August 15th, 1950, the coins of the anna series replaced the king’s portrait with the lion capital of the Asoka pillar. It represented peace and non-violence. The one rupee coins also had a sheaf of corn on one side. Sixteen annas together made a rupee.
The pillar and the corn images were among the many Indian motifs that appeared on the coins, post-independence.
The introduction of the ‘decimal series’ took place in September 1955, with the Indian Coinage Act. Thereafter, a rupee consisted of 100 paisas instead of annas or pice. You could say annas and pice were ‘demonetized’.
The naya paise were minted in the denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50. In 1964, the word ‘naya’ was dropped.
Nickel, cupro nickel, bronze and nickel brass were the metals used in coins till 1963. Later, coins made of aluminium were used. Since 1992, coins were minted mostly in stainless steel.
All these coins came out in different shapes. While most of them were circular, some were also hexagonal, 8-scalloped, and square in shape.
In June 2011, all the coins in the denominations of 25ps were taken out of currency.
The country’s first bimetallic coin – of Rs 10 – was released in 2005 under theme of ‘unity in diversity’.