Two Early Malay Archipelago Issues

CNG 102, Lot: 1353. Estimate $2000. Sold for $1700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MALAY ARCHIPELAGO, Native Kingdoms. Saleindra Kingdom. Circa 800/850. AV Ingot (28.5x24mm, 19.09 g). Pre-standardization. Sandalwood flower within incuse square / Hatch-marked pattern, all struck on a cut triangular ingot. R.S. Wicks, “Monetary Developments in Java Between the Ninth and Sixteenth Centuries: A Numismatic Perspective,” in Indonesia 42 (October 1986), pg. 57, 74, and pg. 52, note 31 = W.F. Stutterheim, Cultuurgeschiedenis van Java in beeld (Weltevreden: Java: Instituut dan G. Kolf, 1926), pl. 44, fig. 5; Mitchiner, South – (but cf. 718-721 for related cut silver ingots); cf. Millies pl. I, 11 = Van der Chiijs pl. XII, 124 (silver ingot); Ibrahim Langkawi, Pengenalan Matawang Alam Melayu Zaman Traditional (Malaysia. 2015), p. 101; cf. Elsen 126, lots 1371-81 and Elsen 128, lots 1649-56 (varying sizes with illegible stamps). VF. Very rare in gold and with full stamps.

The earliest coinage of Java consists of irregular cut ingots stamped with a sandalwood flower. The majority examples are known in silver, but scattered gold finds are also recorded (Wicks 1986, pg. 57 and 74) These early precious-metal pieces would have had too great a value for regular circulation in the marketplace and presumably functioned as wealth storage or ritualistically, though they also would have a place in international trade (Wicks 1986, pg. 64-5).