This RARE of RARE more than 400 year old Radha Krishna Half Anna coin of 1617 is of great HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE as below:

During the reign of British Monarch Elizabeth I East India Company (EIC) was formed in 1600. A Royal Charter was given to trade with the East Indies. Their first voyage was in 1601 and in1608 they established a trade point in India at Surat.

 In 1610 they set up their first factory in Machilipatnam (in modern-day Andhra Pradesh of India) and in 1612 the Battle of Swally (Suvali in Surat) was fought between the company forces and the Portuguese. The company had a decisive victory, and this led to the rise of the EIC as a paramount force in India, and also the end of Portuguese dominance.

Sir Thomas Roe was a Representative of the British King James I in the court of Mughal Emperor JAHANGIR, and after winning the battle of Swally in Surat, in 1612 Jahangir granted East India Company exclusive rights to reside and set up Factories in Surat and other areas of India.

At that time East India Company had introduced this coin. To gain smooth acceptance by the general public in India they used images of various Indian Gods in their first attempt for establishing the trade.

These coins of the East India Company were most probably imported for initial trials. In 1600 various mints in the UK were making high quality machine made coins. At that time modern mints with such technology did not exist in India.