Claim
“Two anna coins released in 1818 by East India Company; and you are in for a surprise”
Fact
A set of two images with coins featuring Hindu gods Ram, Sita and Lakshman, the mystic syllable Om and a lotus is viral with claims that they were minted by the East India Company. A source familiar with numismatics or the study of coins confirmed that these ‘fantasy’ coins combined features of Ramatanka(s) or ‘temple tokens’ and were not meant for commercial use. Temple tokens with motifs or designs of Hindu gods and goddesses were symbolic and were never used commercially or as legal tender. These temple tokens did not have currency values engraved on them as they relied on the intrinsic value of the metal they were made of. BOOM had debunked a similar image in April 2017.