Melaka Coinage-Animal Tin Money.

I found many information about Malacca Portuguse tin coinage story. I will share most of them in here today with everyone. If any of the information I found is not correct, please email me with the correct data. I will divided this melaka coinage story into 6 post for easy viewing of the coinage. Tin Animal Money is early money believed to be first used by the royal courts of Malay Peninsula in the 15th century. These Tin Animal Money later evolved into a form of currency used in Perak, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. The most common shape was the crocodile money, others include tortoises, elephants, fish, crickets, beetles, and others. Another shapes of money were developing as well, and besides of varieties of primitively formed tin ingots, various animal shaped ingots appeared in early 18th century. However, some authors dates first animal shaped ingots, supposed originated in Malacca, by early 15th century.

The form of animal shaped ingots was originated both, from Hindu (e.g. elephant), and from China (e.g. tortoise). Besides having a monetary function, these ingots carried a religious value. It was common practice for Chinese miners to guarantee that the new tin opening would be lucky by making an animal sacrifice before indulging in thecustomary celebration [Doyle]. Animal shaped ingots were widely produced in Perak. A variety of ingot money (fighting cock ingot) was circulated in Kedah and Perlis in the middle of the 18th century. Another variety of ingots appeared based on the pagoda and pyramid series in Pahang. It was shaped in so called "tin hat" shape so that it included a hollow pagoda under the tin carcass. This form of ingots is the first known to be originated in Malay Sultanates and carried a legend. According to Saran Singh, first known tin hat shaped ingot appeared in 1819.


Tin Animal Money shaped of Tortoise discovered at reclamation developments.



Tin animal money of Fish shaped with Chinese character Seng Cai growing wealth.



Tortoise Tin Money of the 15th century.



Tin clamp money of the 15th century.



Animal Tin Money shaped of FISH decorated with pattern and embossed Chinese.



Animal Tin Money shaped of TORTOISE decorated with pattern and embossed China character.



Animal tin money shaped of CROCODILE discovered at reclamation developments .



Animal tin money shaped of standing rooster, weighted around 35 grams.



Animal tin money with crystallize form grow on the surfaced in patches.


Source: Picture by skydrivelive.com, data by Melaka Century Currency, Classification of ingot money.


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