Madurai Kasu

[Rangnath]

Bob Reis, a dealer who truly cares about making the correct attribution of a coin, had this to say about SOUTH INDIAN COINS:

   Southern India is a whole different place from the rest of India.  Different people, different languages, different traditions, different coins.  The coins have tended to be tiny.  The range of types is enormous.  New ones are always turning up.  The big rulers made coins, little rulers copied them, neighbors copied the copies, and so forth.  It gets to be impossible many times to nail an attribution.  Best one can do many times is to place a given coin in a series.  You get a region, a time range, that's about it.  BUT - very interesting, at least to me.

Overlord, I think we are having a difficult time with kasus from the South, specially those from the Nayakas of Madurai, Tanjore and Tennevelly.
I know that some our coins have been posted before.  Frankly, I became confused when re-reading our old posts.  

I'll post four coins that I feel reasonably sure are from Madurai.  The problem is that I am still relying on the Standard Catalog for guidance with attributions.
I did attempt to look at Mitchiner's "Coinage & History of South India" but was frustrated with the poor quality of the photos of the coins.

1.   Madurai Km 1:  Venkateshwara on obverse;  struck in the name of Vemkatapa (pati)raya (Vi jayanagar) in abstract Kannada script; see Kerala #828 in Mitchiner "Coinage & History of South India"; 2.4 grams, 14 mm
2.   Madurai Km 13, Ganesh seated on obverse; SRI VIRA on reverse; 1.5 grams, 11 mm
3.   Madurai unpublished?;  3 pellets on obverse, SRI VIRA on reverse; 1 gram, 8 mm
4.   Madurai  Km 2;  obverse inscription "Tiru Vengala"; reverse inscription "Muttu Krishnappa"  I don't know which side is which.  I do know that Mutta Krishnappa was Nayaka and Feudatory to Vijayanagar between 1601 and 1609.

[BC Numismatics]

Richie,
  The second coin looks like a hammered Amman Cash from Pudukkottai to me,because the obverse design is very similar to the machine-struck Amman Cash coin from that Indian Princely State.

Aidan.

[Rangnath]

Thanks Aidan.
I agree, there is some similarity in the way the coins look. But the Pudukkottai coins have Parvati, Siva's wife, on the obverse (notice the mamilary glands?), whereas this coin has Parvati's headless son, albeit combined with the head of a noble elephant, on the obverse.  At least, that's the way I see it: fat body and some indication of a trunk.   And the script on the reverse appears to differ also, though both are South Indian.
richie

[Overlord]

What weapon is the deity on the first coin holding. I think it is a bow. Could it be Rama instead of Venkateshwara? The second one is surely Ganesha. As for the third on, I'm not sure what the three dots represent (perhaps the holy trinity: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva). The reverse of the last one reminds me of

[Figleaf]

What have I been eating?

Peter

[Rangnath]

Yes. The resemblance is obvious. 
richie

[Overlord]

1. Madurai Km 1:  Venkateshwara on obverse;  struck in the name of Vemkatapa (pati)raya (Vi jayanagar) in abstract Kannada script; see Kerala #828 in Mitchiner "Coinage & History of South India"; 2.4 grams, 14 mm

This one simply has "Sri Vira" on the reverse. Coins attributed to Venkatapatiraya II have Ve m ka/ta pa in two lines. I think this is an anonymous issue.

2.   Madurai Km 13, Ganesh seated on obverse; SRI VIRA on reverse; 1.5 grams, 11 mm

I think we have this one right. This matches Ganesh#5.89.

3. Madurai unpublished?;  3 pellets on obverse, SRI VIRA on reverse; 1 gram, 8 mm

May be you are right, but I have never seen Sri Vira writen like this (if this is indeed Sri Vira).

4. Madurai  Km 2;  obverse inscription "Tiru Vengala"; reverse inscription "Muttu Krishnappa"  I don't know which side is which.  I do know that Mutta Krishnappa was Nayaka and Feudatory to Vijayanagar between 1601 and 1609.

The first image is the reverse, showing the Telugu legend Mu du/Kri shna in two lines. The obverse legend is probably Ti ru ve/m ga la, but no matter how hard I stare, I only see Mr. Pringles 

[Rangnath]

Thanks Overlord.
Everytime we take a look at kasu from the Great South, we gain information. 
But no thanks at all to Mr. Pringles. 
richie