fanam

plural fanams · alternative fanham · alternative fanom · alternative panam

1. historicalA former currency in southern India.

   It is now reduced to one fanam, or fifty per cent per annum, and no person is to receive more, under penalty of fine, according to the circumstances of the case.

   1811, William Marsden, The History of Sumatra

   2 more examples

   The Carwar factory chief replied that the effects had realized 13,146 rupees 1 fanam and 12 budgerooks; that Harvey had left a will dated the 8th April, 1708, and that therefore nothing had been paid to Mrs. Chown.

   1907, John Biddulph, The Pirates of Malabar, and An Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago

   The captors have claimed and obtained from the local authorities the promised reward of one hundred dollars, besides having sold the flesh of the animal itself to the Chinese, Klings, and others for six fanams a catty (a fanam is about three halfpence), by which they realized about seventy dollars more."

   1899, J. F. A. McNair, Prisoners Their Own Warders