Something unusual. Ceylon. Silver Larin trade coinage. Circa 16-17th century AD. Rare Also known as koku ridi (fish hook) silvers, they were modelled after the Persian Larin (aka hairpin) silver coins. The Ceylonese modified the original designs by bending it into the shape of hooks. Some believe that was to facilitate a more convenient mode of carrying/hooking onto the dress. Although original Persian Larins have descriptive Persian scripts on theirs, the Ceylonese eventually imitated the design and patterns in Persian although they are unintelligible. The Larins made their way from Persia though the Arabian gulf and popular through the Indian Ocean particularly in Ceylon, Maldives and parts of India. In particular the Portuguese period saw their most widespread use as a popular trade coin.
That is so COOL !! I LOVE the unusual and most of us have a few earlier types of Western examples that were utilized as 'coinage' or in trade. I even keep a bag of 'salaria' around the house in case the economy tanks Oh yeah, here is one example of a 'rock' (Aes Rude) traded for value that I just threw a bid on:
Thanks for sharing this piece. Interesting how the Ceylonese kind of faked the Persian writing, making it not readable. Was this a kind of counterfeiting, or just trying to copy the design since these coins were fashionable with people as money? Hmm.
Thanks.. I do not know exactly how rare but their distribution of this type is not very wide and was used more for trade purposes. These were local design coinage and records were not properly kept. Nevertheless a recent specimen was sold by Stephen Album at a pretty amazing price
Now these were legitimate and official. It was imitative but was actually used for trade officially. Just that they copied the Persian writings poorly. Here's a more detailed article http://lakdiva.com/coins/kandyan/kandyan_larin.html
Interesting items. If you had not mentioned those were currency, I would have thought they look like little rocks, at least, that is how they look in the photos.
Fascinating! I never saw such items used as currency until just now. May I ask, how much do those examples you photographed retail/wholesale for?
Thanks. The one I have does not have a retail or wholesale price as the dealer I got from directly from Sri Lanka have only 3 from which I got 1.
Great Thread Loong Siew! I did not see your thread until after I started this one a few days ago: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/la...ian-seaboards-–-counterfeit-detection.271102/