The smallest charge that can exist freely in nature is

1. syllabus states the QUANTISATION of electric charge: $q = ne$ for some integer $n$. 2. The elementary charge is $e = 1.6\times 10^{-19}\,\text{C}$ — the magnitude of the charge on an electron (or a proton). 3. Free quarks would carry fractional charge, but they are confined inside hadrons and never observed in isolation. So $e$ is the smallest FREE charge. 4. Macroscopic charges always come as integer multiples of $e$. 5. Option A is a huge macroscopic charge. Option C is a MASS, not a charge. Option D contradicts the existence of charged objects. _Source: syllabus Physics Part 1, Ch 1 "Electric Charges and Fields", §1.4 (Quantisation of Charge) + §1.5, p. 4–5._