Indian paisa

This article is about the subunit of the Indian rupee. For other uses, see Paisa.

The Indian paisa (plural: paise) is a 1⁄100 (one-hundredth) subdivision of the Indian rupee. The paisa was first introduced on 1 April 1957 after decimalisation of the Indian rupee.

In 1955, the Government of India first amended the Indian Coinage Act and adopted the "metric system for coinage". From 1957 to 1964, the paisa was called naya paisa (transl. 'new paisa') to distinguish it from the old paisa/pice which was a 1⁄64 subdivision of the Indian Rupee. On 1 June 1964, the term "naya" was dropped and the denomination was named paisa. Paisa has been issued in 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, 25, and 50 paise coins. Though as of 2023, coins of the denomination of 1 rupee are the lowest value in use.

History

Main article: Coins of the Indian rupee

Prior to 1957, Indian rupee was not decimalised and the rupee from 1835 to 1957 was further divided into 16 annas. Each anna was further divided to four Indian pices and each pice into three Indian pies till 1947 when the pie was demonetised.

Denomination	Corresponding value	From	To	Comments
One Indian rupee	Sixteen Indian anna	1835	1947
		1947	1950	The Frozen Series
		1950	1957	The Anna Series
	Hundred paise	1957	1964	Naya paisa series
		1964	Present	Except 50 paise, rest all paise, anna, pice and pies coins demonetised.
One Indian anna	Four Indian pice	1835	1947
		1947	1950	The Frozen Series.
		1950	1957	The Anna Series. Anna and pice demonetised in 1957.
One Indian pice	Three Indian pies	1835	1947	Pies demonetised in 1947.
One Indian rupee = 100 paise = 16 anna = 64 pice = 192 pies.

Coins

Naya paisa series (1957–1964)

Naya paisa series
Value	Technical parameters				Description			Year of minting		Monetary status
	Weight	Diameter	Thickness	Metal	Edge	Obverse	Reverse	First	Last
1 naya paisa	1.5 g	16 mm	1 mm	Bronze	Plain	State Emblem of India and country name in Hindi and English.	Face-value and year.	1957	1962	Demonetised.
2 naya Paise	2.95 g	18 mm	1.80 mm	Cupronickel	Smooth			1957	1963	Demonetised.
5 naya paise
10 naya paise
20 naya paise
50 naya paise

Paisa series (1964–2002)

Paisa – Aluminum series
Value	Technical parameters				Description			Year of minting		Monetary status
	Mass	Diameter	Thickness	Metal	Edge	Obverse	Reverse	First	Last
1 paisa	0.75 g	17 mm	1.72 mm	Aluminium	Smooth	State Emblem of India and country name in Hindi and English.	Face-value and year.	1965	1981	Demonetised.
2 paise	1.0 g	20 mm	1.58 mm							Demonetised.
3 paise	1.2 g	21 mm	2.0 mm					1964	1971	Demonetised.
5 paise	1.5 g	22.0 mm	2.17 mm			State Emblem of India country name and face-value.	Year and "Save for development" lettering. Coin minted to commemorate FAO.	1977	1977	Demonetised.
10 paise	2.27 g	25.91 mm	1.92 mm			State Emblem of India and country name in Hindi and English.	Face-value and year.	1971	1982	Demonetised.
20 paise	2.2 g	26 mm	1.7 mm					1982	1997	Demonetised.
25 paise	2.83 g	19.05 mm	1.55 mm					1957	2002	Demonetised.
50 paise	2.9 g	19 mm	1.5 mm					1957	2002	In circulation but rare.

Mint mark

• No mintmark = Kolkata
• ⧫ = Mumbai mint
• B = Mumbai Proof issues
• * = Hyderabad
• ° = Noida

Symbol for Paisa

Main article: Indian rupee sign § Symbol for Paisa

Proposed symbol for Paisa

A symbol for the paisa ⟨⟩ was designed using the same concept as the symbol for rupee. However, the proposed symbol never appeared on any coin, as the Reserve Bank of India had stopped minting any paisa coins before this proposal.

See also

• Paisa
• History of the rupee