Multilingual Coin of King George Fifth

[shariqkhan]

Dear Friends, I have posted a British Indian Coin at http://coinsindia.info
Denomination of the coin is inscribed in 5 languages. 3 languages are recognized as English, Hindi, Urdu.
from
Shariq Khan
 

[translateltd]

Hi Shariq,

I just replied to this via CoinsClub - the bottom language appears to be Telugu.  It isn't Tamil.

Regards,

[BC Numismatics]

Shariq & Martin,
  The script could also be that used for writing the Kannada or Malayalam languages as well.

Aidan.

[translateltd]

Shariq & Martin,
  The script could also be that used for writing the Kannada or Malayalam languages as well.

Aidan.

Good thinking, but I looked up Kannada for good measure before I posted my reply earlier and I'm pretty convinced it's Telugu*.  I see that Schön (2003) says the four languages are Nagpuri, Persian, Bengali and Tamil, but I'm not convinced.  The "Persian" is Urdu, for one thing, and Tamil has very differently shaped letters, which I am fairly confident I would recognise.

*Sinhalese is another option, as the script is very similar to Telugu (I think I got the reference to Telugu from an ancient memory of an old coin book (1960s?), which may also have been wrong!!)

[BC Numismatics]

Shariq & Martin,
  The right-hand inscription is definitely Bengali.The bottom inscription is strongly believed to be Malayalam.It isn't Tamil,I'm afraid.

Aidan.

[translateltd]

Shariq & Martin,
  The right-hand inscription is definitely Bengali.The bottom inscription is strongly believed to be Malayalam.It isn't Tamil,I'm afraid.

Aidan.

Hello Aidan,

I've been saying all along that it isn't Tamil, so I'm not quite sure who your last comment is directed to.  Anyway, this has been a most interesting exercise, and I've checked online articles on Telugu, Sinhalese and Malayalam scripts here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telugu_script

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sinhala.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam_script

and I can match the greatest number of letters on the coin using the chart for Telugu, so I'm back to my first impression on this one, until someone can offer anything more conclusive.

I've also been able to match the letters in the first word against the Telugu word "naalugu" (four) using the chart here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telugu_language#Writing_system

so now I'm pretty much convinced.

[shariqkhan]

Good Work translateltd
Now I am able to conclude that  and with reference of  Mr Shalan that on reading clock wise from top the languages are
1. Urdu
2. Bangla
3. Telugu
4.  Hindi
and in the middle English

[Rangnath]

Thanks for drawing our attention to this wonderful coin. 
I've asked similar questions before, but my interest is sincere. What do you think Martin?  Is there a coin with 6 or more languages represented? If there is, my guess is that the British were involved in its minting. 
richie

[translateltd]

Thanks for drawing our attention to this wonderful coin. 
I've asked similar questions before, but my interest is sincere. What do you think Martin?  Is there a coin with 6 or more languages represented? If there is, my guess is that the British were involved in its minting. 
richie

I really don't know, though I'd love to find out - five must be pretty close to the record, even just for reasons of space!

[Oesho]

Dear All,

1. Urdu
2. Bangla (Bengali)
3. Telugu
4. Hindi (Deva Nagari)

Just a few small corrections. Hindi is a language, written in Deva Nagari, or just Nagari, script.
This series of cupro-nickel coins was produced in four denominations, viz.: eight annas (ath anna), four annas (char anna), two annas (do anna) and one anna (eek anna).
On coins, as far as I know, maximum of four native languages + English, have been used. On papermoney, even up to eight native languages may be found.

[Rangnath]

Thanks Oesho.  I had forgotten about this series! and what a great series it is.  I love them all though my favorite is the 8 anna design followed by the 1 anna coin. 
The romantic in me sees the coin as reflecting on Unity in Diversity, strength in the whole. But on the other hand, I recognize that the Parts (Gujerati or Malayalam speakers for example) might object to the language selections.  And perhaps Urdu and Hindi speakers might have taken a dim view of finding the whole under the banner of English rather than another language.
I wonder if anyone at the time proposed a language series like that of South Africa? I suppose that is too recent a phenomena.
richie

[translateltd]

If you get into paper money, I think the record is held by the Russian "babel note" series, which had "Workers of the world, unite!" in something like 15 languages. 

[Oesho]

If you get into paper money, I think the record is held by the Russian "babel note" series, which had "Workers of the world, unite!" in something like 15 languages. 

I had British India in mind, otherwise I wouldn't refer to it as "eight native languages".

[shariqkhan]

Hi Oesho,
I own this series of coins except "Eight Anna". Do you have any information about a "Rupee" of this series.

[Oesho]

The series above in cupro-nickel are for the denomination of 1 anna to 8 anna only. The rupee is in silver and forms no part of this particular series.
The 4 and 8 anna denominations were rather short lived (1919-1921) and silver coins of half and a quarter rupee were in more common use. The 2 anna in cupro-nickel (1918-1936) replaced the small silver coin of 2 anna (1911-1917). The 1 anna in cupro-nickel (1911-1936) was introduced in 1905 (Edward VII) and continued during the reign of George V.