Travancore, Fanam Counting Plate, Wood, Width 8.5 x length 15 cm x thickness 1 cm; 80 grams. About 18th century AD. This counting plate was used at the mint to easily count tiny Gold Fanams, weighing about 0.400 grams. Since these Fanam coins were so tiny and it was always possible to drop them while counting manually, such wooden counters were used to count them. In the process, a handful of Fanams were laid out on the Plate, then those coins were flattened on the surface so each depressions of the coins in the plates were filled with a single coin. Once that was done, there was no need to manually count the coins. Later those counted coins were passed on to another person to pack and ship outside the Mints. This Wooden Plate has 10 depressions in each of the 10 rows. As a result at a time as many as 100 Fanam coins could be counted in a matter of few seconds only. A very practical approach to gain efficiency and save time. A Rare piece of numismatic history for numismatists.
