What does yarfa mean?
Yarfa was a small coin used in Bombay during the nineteenth century. Each yarfa was worth one quarter of a pice, so four were equivalent to one pice. The term survives principally in historical dictionaries, gazetteers, and accounts rather than in contemporary speech. It belongs to the vocabulary of British Indian commerce, where coins issued under Portuguese and British systems circulated alongside one another. Although a yarfa was a minor denomination, it could still appear in precise cash transactions and bookkeeping. The word is now obsolete and should be understood as a historical unit of Indian currency, not as a modern coin. Its name also reflects the period’s close commercial links between Bombay, Portuguese India, and the wider system of colonial trade.
nounAn obsolete small coin current in Bombay, valued at one quarter of a pice.
- A historical Bombay coin worth one quarter of a pice.
"The old ledger records a payment of two pice and eight yarfa."
"The shopkeeper gave the customer four yarfa in change."
"Accounts from nineteenth-century Bombay list payments partly in yarfa."
The plural is grammatical but rarely attested because the term itself is historical and obsolete.
"The collector displayed several yarfa alongside other small coins from Bombay."
Four yarfa made a pice: tiny coins, but every rupee was built from them.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of yarfa
Yarfa entered English as an adaptation of Portuguese xarifa, the name of a small coin associated with Portuguese India. The English form became established in descriptions of Bombay currency and was defined as a coin worth one quarter of a pice. The ultimate origin of the Portuguese term is not clear enough to state confidently.
How yarfa is actually used
This is historical, chiefly Anglo-Indian usage associated with Bombay. It appears in older descriptions of Indian coinage and should not be used for a modern currency denomination.