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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TuckHard, post: 3989684, member: 102653&quot;]<p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1050486[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Hello everyone! For several months I&#039;ve been studying and creating a research piece that covers the numismatic history of the ancient maritime kingdoms of Southeast Asia that covers the pre-Islamic coin series from ancient Sumatra, Java, and the Philippines. The main polities covered are the Srivijaya of Sumatra, the Shailendra of Java, the Majapahit of Java, and the Ma-yi of the Philippines. There&#039;s a lot to it and it&#039;s been very interesting; I plan to share the majority of my findings here in time. </p><p><br /></p><p>I wanted to introduce a new discovery that has never been documented anywhere else to the best of my knowledge. The discovery is a previously-unknown reverse design on a rare denomination of gold. Some context should be known about the coinage series first.</p><p><br /></p><p>The island kingdoms of Southeast Asia are generally held to have been not very important in numismatic history. There was little everyday usage of coins until around 1300 CE when the great Majapahit of Java began to import mass quantities of Chinese copper cash coins and the markets began to shift towards currency-usage. Despite this, there are perhaps a dozen different regional coinage series that saw limited usage, mostly in barter/weight usage.</p><p><br /></p><p>The earliest of these local coinages is the Javanese irregular ingots from Central Java, thought to have been issued under the Shailendra Dynasty. They probably weren&#039;t traded as coinage but rather a store of weight in metal. There are gold, silver, and copper examples known. One author suggests they started as a religious token or offering before spreading. Below is an example.</p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1050438[/ATTACH] </p> <p style="text-align: center">Javanese irregular ingot</p> <p style="text-align: center">Before 800 CE</p> <p style="text-align: center">Obv: Upright flowering vase</p> <p style="text-align: center">Rev: Sandalwood flower</p> <p style="text-align: center">Ex. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=p0QvAAAAMAAJ&amp;pg=PT2#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://books.google.com/books?id=p0QvAAAAMAAJ&amp;pg=PT2#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">Millies (pl. 1, 10)</a></p><p><br /></p><p>The next two series to evolve out of these ingot coins were the silver sandalwood massa coins and the gold ta piloncito massa coins, both attributed to the Shailendra Dynasty of Central Java, c. 775-950 CE. Both became very widespread and were even imitated around the region, such as the Srivijaya copying the Javanese and issuing their own silver sandalwood massa coins. Below is one of the gold Javanese massa coins that will be the focus of this post.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1050464[/ATTACH] </p><p style="text-align: center">Javanese gold piloncito massa</p> <p style="text-align: center">Circa 775-1000 CE</p> <p style="text-align: center">Obv: Devanagari character &#039;Ta&#039;</p> <p style="text-align: center">Rev: Two incused rectangles split by the lingam</p> <p style="text-align: center">1 Massa - 2.4 grams</p> <p style="text-align: center">Ex. <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3331067" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3331067" rel="nofollow">CNG E-Auction 361, Lot 443</a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p>The gold coins of Java were rounded like beads rather than flat and are commonly, along with similar Filipino coins, called piloncitos. Like the silver coins issued during the time, the gold coins were struck to a weight standard of 2.4 grams, or the <i>massa</i>. The gold Javanese coins were known to have been issued in 1 massa and 1/2 massa weights according to Mitchiner, but this is actually inaccurate. In addition to those, there is also 1/4 massa, 1/8 massa, and a very rare, huge 4 massa coins that weigh in at 9.6 grams. All of the various denominations borrowed from the lingam reverse but features mostly corrupt or illegible reverses. Below are two examples of the 4 massa pieces. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1050435[/ATTACH] </p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1050437[/ATTACH] </p> <p style="text-align: center">Javanese gold piloncito 4 massa</p> <p style="text-align: center">Circa 775-950 CE</p> <p style="text-align: center">Obv: Two incused rectangles split by the lingam</p> <p style="text-align: center">Rev: Corrupted</p> <p style="text-align: center">4 Massa -&nbsp; 9.6 grams</p> <p style="text-align: center">Ex. <a href="http://koinkunoantik.blogspot.com/2016/06/koin-emas-krishnala.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://koinkunoantik.blogspot.com/2016/06/koin-emas-krishnala.html" rel="nofollow">Koin Kuno Antik</a>, <a href="http://patinafolkart.blogspot.com/2015/05/syailendra-gold-coin-4-massa.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://patinafolkart.blogspot.com/2015/05/syailendra-gold-coin-4-massa.html" rel="nofollow">Patina Antik</a></p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p>Although hard to read, there is a distinctive and purposeful reverse. I struggled to find an answer to the mystery of the reverse until I stumbled upon <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/50076" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/50076" rel="nofollow">this vague listing</a> in the online catalog for the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City. Without an obverse or other details, this Met Museum example seemed to be a rare unique piece, until I began to look at the other four massa pieces and rotated it. There was a match! Below are five examples of the rare four massa that exhibit the flowering vase design from the earliest coins of Java, the irregular ingot coinage! </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1050481[/ATTACH]</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1050483[/ATTACH]</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1050484[/ATTACH]</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1050485[/ATTACH]</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1050486[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>This discovery is especially interesting for a couple reasons. First, it is a new design series that has previously gone unnoticed by any research or books. Second, it directly ties the Javanese gold piloncitos to the earlier mixed Javanaese irregular ingot coinage. Lastly, it shows that both sides of the Javanese irregular ingots were carried over to later coinages. The flowering vase obverse was later copied on the gold four massa while the sandalwood flower reverse was copied by the much more common silver sandalwood massa of Java, which were then themselves later imitated on Sumatra and Thailand. The reach and influence of the ingot coinage must have been larger than previously thought.</p><p><br /></p><p>If anyone else has noticed this, or seen any references that discuss this, I&#039;d love to hear about it. I&#039;ve read nearly everything I can on the series and have never found this discussed or these four massa pieces illustrated. </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;d also love to see any other ancient Indonesian of Filipino coinage, I&#039;ll be posting some of my personal pieces later![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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