Ancient, British and World Coins, Tokens, Tickets and Passes, Historical and Art Medals, Numismatic Books and Banknotes

Panama, Batavia, United East India Company, Kroon or Reaal of 48 Stuivers, 1645, sword with laurel wreath in background, bataviæ anno 1645 around, rev. VOC monogram, value above, four arabesques around, 26.05g/12h (Scholten 12; Bucknill 39; Maillet pl.xiii, 1; Catalogus Bataviaasch Genootschap 34, this coin; Salvesen sale –; Dav. 415; KM. 34 and p.895, this coin). Old institution number ‘34’ lightly inked on obverse at 5 o’clock, otherwise extremely fine and toned, of the highest rarity; the first silver Dollar-sized coin minted in the Orient and the finest of the three known specimens (£15,000-20,000)

Provenance:
Sotheby Auction, 24 November 1972, lot 1;
Schulman Auction 286 [Amsterdam], September 1987, lot 483 [bt by Spink];
Dave Perry, USA, March 1989 [as footnoted in KM];
H. Walls Collection, Paul Bosco Auction 18 [New York], 4 August 1997, lot 123.

To combat a local shortage of silver coin in the Dutch Indies, pieces to the value of 12, 24 and 48 stuivers were cast locally to a lighter standard, the 48 stuivers being equal to seven-eighths of a lion daalder. The first round silver coins made anywhere in the Orient, they were withdrawn from circulation in 1647.

See Colour Plate II