Chapter FAGHFÚR to FANÁM of F by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

FANÁM, s. The denomination of a small coin long in use in S. India, Malayal. and Tamil panam, ‘money,’ from Skt. pana, [rt. pan, ‘to barter’]. There is also a Dekhani form of the word, falam. In Telugu it is called ruka. The form fanam was probably of Arabic origin, as we find it long prior to the Portuguese period. The fanam was anciently a gold coin, but latterly of silver, or sometimes of base gold. It bore various local values, but according to the old Madras monetary system, prevailing till 1818, 42 fanams went to one star pagoda, and a Madras fanam was therefore worth about 2d. (see Prinsep’s Useful Tables, by E. Thomas, p. 18). The weights of a large number of ancient fanams given by Mr. Thomas in a note to his Pathan Kings of Delhi show that the average weight was 6 grs. of gold (p. 170). Fanams are still met with on the west coast, and as late as 1862 were received at the treasuries of Malabar and Calicut. As the coins were very small they used to be counted by means of a small board or dish, having a large number of holes or pits. On this a pile of fanams was shaken, and then swept off, leaving the holes filled. About the time named Rs. 5000 worth of gold fanams were sold off at those treasuries. [Mr. Logan names various kinds of fanams: the viray, or gold, of which 4 went to a rupee; new viray, or gold, 3½ to a rupee; in silver, 5 to a rupee; the rasi fanam, the most ancient of the indigenous fanams, now of fictitious value; the sultani fanam of Tippoo in 1790–92, of which 3½ went to a rupee (Malabar, ii. Gloss. clxxix.).]

c. 1344.—“A hundred fânâm are equal to 6 golden dinars” (in Ceylon).—Ibn Batuta, iv. 174.

c. 1348.—“And these latter (Malabar Christians) are the Masters of the public steelyard, from which I derived, as a perquisite of my office as Pope’s Legate, every month a hundred gold fan, and a thousand when I left.”—John Marignolli, in Cathay, 343.

1442.—“In this country they have three kinds of money, made of gold mixed with alloy … the third called fanom, is equivalent in value to the tenth part of the last mentioned coin” (partab, vid. pardao).— Abdurrazak, in India in the XVth Cent. p. 26.

1498.—“Fifty fanoeens, which are equal to 3 cruzados.”—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 107.

1505.—“Quivi spendeno ducati d’auro veneziani e monete di auro et argento e metalle, chiamano vna moneta de argento fanone. XX vagliono vn ducato. Tara e vn altra moneta de metale. XV vagliono vn Fanone.”—Italian version of Letter from Dom Mannel of Portugal (Reprint by A. Burnell, 1881), p. 12.

1510.—“He also coins a silver money called tare, and others of gold, 20 of which go to a pardao, and are called fanom. And of these small coins of silver, there go sixteen to a fanom.”—Varthema, Hak. Soc. 130.

[1515.—“They would take our cruzados at 19 fanams.”—Albuquerque’s Treaty with the Samorin, Alguns Documentos da Torre do Tombo, p. 373.]

1516.—“Eight fine rubies of the weight of one fanão … are worth fanões 10.”— Barbosa (Lisbon ed.), 384.

1553.—“In the ceremony of dubbing a knight he is to go with all his kinsfolk and friends, in pomp and festal procession, to the House of the King … and make him an offering of 60 of those pieces of gold which they call Fanões, each of which may be worth 20 reis of our money.”—De Barros, Dec. I. liv. ix. cap. iii.

1582.—In the English transl. of ‘Castañeda’ is a passage identical with the preceding, in which the word is written “Fannon.”—Fol. 36b.

“In this city of Negapatan aforesaid are current certain coins called fannò. … They are of base gold, and are worth in our money 10 soldi each, and 17 are equal to a zecchin of Venetian gold.”—Gasp. Balbi, f. 84c.

c. 1610.—“Ils nous donnent tous les jours a chacun un Panan, qui est vne pièce d’or monnoye du Roy qui vaut environ quatre sols et demy.”—Pyrard de Laval, i. 250; [Hak. Soc. i. 350; in i. 365 Panants].

[c. 1665.—“… if there is not found in every thousand oysters the value of 5 fanos of pearls—that is to say a half ecu of our money,—it is accepted as a proof that the fishing will not be good. …”—Távernier, ed. Ball, ii. 117 seq.]

1678.—“2. Whosoever shall profane the name of God by swearing or cursing, he shall pay 4 fanams to the use of the poore for every oath or curse.”—Orders agreed on by the Governor and Council of Ft. St. Geo. Oct. 28. In Notes and Exts. No. i. 85.

1752.—“N.B. 36 Fanams to a Pagoda, is the exchange, by which all the servants belonging to the Company receive their salaries. But in the Bazar the general exchange in Trade is 40 to 42.”—T. Brooks, p. 8.

1784.—This is probably the word which occurs in a “Song by a Gentleman of the Navy when a Prisoner in Bangalore Jail” (temp. Hyder’ Ali).

“Ye Bucks of Seringapatam,
Ye Captives so cheerful and gay;
How sweet with a golden sanam
You spun the slow moments away.”