Palembang Sultanate, undated, ca. 1775-1825 AD.,
1 Pitis (ø 17 mm / 0,61 g), tin-lead alloy, ø 7,5 mm center hole,
Obv.: … , legend around center hole.
Rev.: (blank), center hole.
cf. Robinson 11 – 12 ; cf. https://www.zeno.ru/showgallery.php?cat=942 .
Peter on htt p://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php/topic,33717.0.html :
“Though these are official issues, approved by the sultan of Palembang, the production was outsourced to local Chinese, who did not use Arabic script and used Chinese production technology. Your coins are all cast in tin. Such coins were called pitis buntu (holed coins) or pitis teboh (coins without hole. The pitis buntu were strung on rotan to form a string of 500, called a chuchub. The pitis teboh were packaged in leaves by 250 each, called kupat. Both chuchub and kupat were valued in relation to the Spanish real (silver) and Dutch duit (copper). A kupat was valued at 1/16th real or 20 duiten. A chuchub was worth double. The value of the units was also dependent on the size of the coins. The standard size of the holed coins was around 15 mm. Smaller coins were worth less. The users could not see most coins, as they were either in a bag of leaves or strung very tightly, like a roll of candy. This meant using them was an act of trust on several levels, probably undeserved, but there was little alternative until Dutch money started flowing in in quantity. Mahmud Badar ud din tried to force their circulation with severe penalties for refusing pitis (both he and the Chinese must have profited handsomely from them.)“
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