1 Pitis - Zarb fi Bilad Palembang

The Sultanate of Palembang occupied a strategically awkward position in the 18th century — nominally independent but increasingly caught between Dutch VOC commercial pressure and the overlordship of the Javanese Mataram sultanate. These small tin pitis were the everyday transactional currency of that tension, struck locally at a time when the VOC was systematically dismantling Palembang's pepper trade monopoly. Tin was the logical material: Bangka Island, within Palembang's sphere, was among the richest tin sources in Southeast Asia, and the Dutch eventually seized direct control of those mines in 1722.