Hello Maybe someone can help me. In 1978 I purchased a coin while in Sri Lanka. I will try to discribe it because I can not make out a country. Side 1- Top: A five corner small raised cluster with a raised dot on each side. Middle: large V with a O through the left arm of the V and a C through the right arm. Bottom: Date 1731 Side 2- Top: a five topped crown Middle to bottom: A left facing Griffin in a shield No other noted markingsnoti Edging feels slightly like a US dime. Coin color is like that of a US penny Any assistance would be appreicated. Thank you Ron
Cannot really help you with that specific coin, but it seems to be a VOC piece. VOC is short for "Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie", the Dutch East India Company. It was founded about 400 years ago. The most common VOC coin was the duit, I think. Christian
Christian is right on. Unfortunately, without a picture closer ID is just about impossible. The 18th Century volume of Krause has page after page of Netherlands East Indies coins from a wide variety of individual colonies, many of them more-or-less matching your description.
That's a copper VOC (Netherlands East Indies) 1 duit (cent) of Holland province (left facing lion on crowned shield). Each province issued its own version of colonial coins with only the shields being different. Collector value depends on date, number minted, mint mark (if any), and condition (grade) of a coin, including amount of wear, any dents, scratches or cleaning. This one may be worth from about $1 with heavy wear to around $5 with moderate wear to maybe $10+ with light wear. You might also try a library for a copy of the Standard Catalog of World Coins for pictures, values and lots more interesting info.
The dutch rulled Sri Lanka from about 1596 till 1795/6 the VOC coins of Ceilon are mostly copper bonks with odd shapes. They are rare in relations to the coins that were used by the same VOC company in the Duch East Indies.
Giladzuc,the later coins of Dutch Ceylon are round. They were struck at 3 mints - Jaffna,Galle,& Colombo.Unfortunately,there are a lot of duds around though,so buyer beware! Aidan.
