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1/2 Stuiver Batavia - Emergency Issue
| Issuer | Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1644 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Within an inner circle, the arms of Batavia depicted as a vertical sword pointing upward. The date 1644 appears at the top of the outer ring, completing the circular legend that runs along the coin's periphery. The design is characteristic of the emergency coinage struck for local circulation in Batavia, with a somewhat crude, hammered appearance typical of the period. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | · BATAVIA · ANNO · 1644 · |
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| Additional information |
Batavia's 1644 copper emergency coinage was struck because the VOC's supply lines from the Dutch Republic had broken down severely enough that the colony faced an acute shortage of small change for daily transactions. The company authorized local production rather than wait for shipments that might not arrive — a pragmatic corporate decision that produced some of the most idiosyncratic coinage in the entire Dutch colonial record.
These pieces were struck with whatever dies and copper stock were available in Batavia at the time, accounting for the considerable variation collectors encounter across examples of KM#31.