1 Rasi Cochin

The VOC struck these small copper pieces for use in Cochin (present-day Kochi) following the Dutch capture of the port from the Portuguese in 1663. Cochin was a critical node in the pepper and spice trade, and the Company needed local denominational coinage that would circulate comfortably alongside indigenous rasi units already familiar to traders on the Malabar Coast. The series ran for over six decades under VOC authority until the early eighteenth century, an unusually long production span for a colonial merchant issue.