koperen Keping (Haantjesduit) AH1247-1832 Nederlands Indië

This is not a coin but a trade token. They have an undeserved bad name in Dutch history. They were way too light and forbidden. What is often forgotten is that there was a scarcity of copper in the whole region and the merchants had to pay the Malays and Buginese somehow. They were struck in Birmingham on orders from Singapore merchants. Neither the country names, nor the dates or the denominations on these series (there are 20 something types) are trustworthy. The date is fantasy also. The British had issued a series (1, 2 and 4 kepings) of EIC coins in the "Straits Settlements" with the date 1804. This is a lightweight copy of the 1 keping, except that the text "Island of Sumatra" replaces "East India Company". The coin makes the same date error as the token. obv: the arms of the EIC with shield holders and flags, above ISLAND OF SUMATRA, date below. rev: in Arabic script Satoe Keping (1 keping), above a Persian 2 closed above (should have been a 1, of course) and 1219 below The series was known in what is now Indonesia as doeit ajam (chicken duit). This is because the most common types of the series show a rooster on the obverse. Your type is one of the first. In the course of time, the types became more original and 2 kepings also saw the light of day. To illustrate that these are really Singapore tokens a little anecdote. The Chinese in Singapore used the tokens for a game of chance. When two people met, they would take a coin out of their pocket, without showing it to the other. If the two coins were different, the challenger would take both. If they were the same, the other party would receive both. This explains why the more difficult coins of the series are usually in good condition, while you can find the common ones completely worn.

These pieces are tokens, since they were ordered and paid for by Singapore merchants and not by any government. The accounts have been found and there is even a type with the name of one of the ordering merchants: C. R. Read, who was an influential merchant from Singapore, trading with Sumatra and Borneo. bron