Indian Antiquary Vol 42

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 192

184
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1918.
other things, the coins of the country. He says, p. 48, that the money of exchange at Trengganu (wang blanja negri Trengganu) is 3840 piti 856 of tin (pitis timah) to one dollar (ringgit). They bear an impression of the words maliku' l-a'dil and are of the size of our duit (duit ket). It seems to me from this remark to be very probable that all the coins of this class [above] mentioned belong to the Malay State of Trengganu.
7. P. 149. Passing on to Pahang during his voyage along the same coast, the learned Malay Abdullah complains greatly of the difficolties relating to the monetary system : 16 tompang (blocks of tin) are worth one dollar, but cannot be broken up into three suku, a half suku and one suku.67 If we wish to buy an object of very small value, we must give a whole tampang. Cf. text p. 23, French trang. p. 23). Thus this State, once so flourishing, has returned to an almost primitive savagery, where great blocks of tin, the produce of the country, serve as an imperfect medium of exchange.
8. P. 150. I have been unable to discover any ancient monetary remains of this State (Patani), but I have received one coin of a fairly recent date. It is a piece of tin, round in form, with a round hole, larger and heavier than the ordinary pitis. The obverse bears the Malay legend : in [int] pitis blanja raj (raja] Patani, this is a pitis current of the raja of Patani.co On the reverse there is : khalifu l-.uminin, sanat 1261, the head of the believers; the year 1261 (1845).
9. P. 161. To the north of Patani is Sanggora .. . It was in the fine numismatic collection of Dr. W. Freudenthal in London, that I discovered a coin of tin of this small State. It is round with a round hole, and, as is perfectly explicable from the above-mentioned notice of Dr. Medhurst, it is trilingual,50 That which appears to be the principal side is occupied by a Chinese legend in four characters, which, according to my friend, Professor Hoffmann, should be read : Tsai-tch'ing thung pao, coin of Tsai-tch'ing. As however, we have very little means of determining the names which the Chinese give to foreign towns, we should be very uncertain where to find the locality of this Tsai-tch'ing without the help of the reverse. On the reverse is found the same name twice: in Malay in two words, above and below, Negri Sanggora, and to the right and left in Siamese characters Song-khla, which is [a corruption of] the name in use in. that language.
10. P. 152. We ought also to speak of two coins, which, by their texture, seem to belong to the Malay Peninsula, but as to the exact locality of which, we have been unable to arrive at any determination. The firstoo is a piece of tin, 28 to 30 mill. in diameter, and weighing 4.96 to 6.80 grammes, with a square hole in the centre. The obverse bears the tittle-khalifu' l-muminim, the head of the believers. On the reverse there is nothing but the date-sanat 1256, year 1256 (1840-1)—which is clear. The rest shows certainly some Arabic signs, not Siamese as one would imagine after the preceding piece, but I cannot make out the meaning. On five examples, which I have been able to study, all bearing the same date, there is some difference in the signs, but they nevertheless seem to express the same words. On one specimen might almost be read shahr, which would recall to memory the name of the ancient capital of Siam, mentioned in the Sajra Malayu (shahr al nawi or rather, shahr nari, the new city); but besides the fact that this nomenclature,
8 I do not know why M. Dolaurier (p. 4) has translated [this]:"It takes 8880 of them to make a dollar." The corresponding Malay text is olear: tek ribu dalapan ratas ampat pulah [3840). [Read: tiga ribu dəlapan ratus em pet puloh).
61 Suku, a quarter, is also need for a quarter of dollar, but here it trust, I think, be considered the fourth of a tampang.. [This argues a great local appreciation of the dollar, as the standard tampang is worth 1/10 dollar.]
6Plate XXIII No. 254:
s* Dr. Medhurst who visited Singora in 1828 found it divided into three parta, Chinese, Siamers and Malay. See Plate XXIV. No. 255.
Plate XXIV. fig. 256.