India, putali, an imitation of a Venetian sequin (ducato), 17th century (?).
Obv. जयरामजय जयरामजयराम - repeatedly jay Rama ('Hail Rama'; the Devanagari characters are written without a matra, i.e. a horizontal line at the top). Rama with his consort, Sita, holding a sceptre (?).
Rv. legend as in Obv.; an uncertain figure facing (Lakshmana?), raising both arms, surrounded by stars and a mandorla.
Gold, 2.55 g, flan diameter 24.5 mm, with a loop 28.9 mm.
Grade: Good XF.
The dies were struck after making a gold-soldered loop. The Venetian ducato became the main currency of European trade with India at the end of the fourteenth century. Some of the coins brought in this way were inserted into necklaces in India. It is not known when they began to be imitated on a larger scale, probably in the first half of the seventeenth century. Imitations of Venetian ducats (sequins) are still made in India today. They are used for decoration and are called putali or patli (in Marathi it is the term for a Venetian ducat, literally meaning a "statuette"). The original images of St. Mark and the Doge on the obverse and Christ on the reverse gained new religious meanings there. However, they usually have legends imitating Latin inscriptions; we have not found another case of a putali with a Sanskrit legend. Similarly, the designs are characterized by a significant degree of Hinduization and a lack of visible influence from modern Europe.
