1/2 Rasi Cochin

The VOC never governed Cochin outright — they held it under a treaty arrangement with the Raja of Cochin following their expulsion of the Portuguese in 1663. These small copper pieces were struck to facilitate local trade within that client-state relationship, denominated in the indigenous rasi system rather than any Dutch monetary unit, a deliberate concession to local commercial practice that the Company made wherever indigenous currency habits were too entrenched to displace.