The East India Company's smallest copper denominations were minted primarily at the Madras Presidency, where the cash — derived from the Tamil *kāsu* — had circulated as a unit of account for centuries before the Company standardized it. KM#1 designates the earliest catalogued type in the series, issued as the Company worked to displace a chaotic patchwork of local coinage that varied by town, ruler, and even individual merchant house.
The East India Company's smallest copper denominations were minted primarily at the Madras Presidency, where the cash — derived from the Tamil *kāsu* — had circulated as a unit of account for centuries before the Company standardized it. KM#1 designates the earliest catalogued type in the series, issued as the Company worked to displace a chaotic patchwork of local coinage that varied by town, ruler, and even individual merchant house.