Although gold fanams represented for about a thousand years one of the main denominations of the South Indian currency systems this study starts with the year 1336, the year when Hari Haral declared himself king and founded the Vijayanagar empire. Earlier fanams issued by different mediaeval South Indian dynasties and rulers are very variable in their designs. They show gods, animals, symbols and rarely some letters. Most of them are rare and all too often they are only known as unique pieces and beyond the reach of the average collector. Through the conquests of the kings of Vijayanagar the Vira raya fanam and its descendant, the Kali fanam, spread through large parts of South India. Together with the Kanthirava fanam, originally a coin of the Rajas of Mysore, the Ikkeri fanam and the fanams of Tipu Sultan these types constitute the large majority of the gold fanams available to a collector at this moment.