Catalog
1 Rupee
| Issuer | G. Clunies Ross |
|---|---|
| Year | 1902 |
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| Value | 1 Rupee |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | KEELING COCOS ISLANDS. Z PRO PATRIA Y/E 1823. 1 Exchange for the Sum of ONE RUPEE Keeling Cocos Islands Currency. 1902. |
| Reverse description | Blank reverse with no printed design, showing only the natural texture of the paper stock and faint bleed-through impressions from the obverse printing. |
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| Comments |
George Clunies Ross was the third generation of his family to rule the Cocos (Keeling) Islands as a private fiefdom, and the currency he issued was backed by nothing except his own authority over roughly 500 Cocos Malay laborers who had no legal means of spending it anywhere else. The Ross family operated a coconut plantation economy in which workers were paid in these tokens and scripts redeemable only at the company store — a closed monetary loop that persisted, with little external oversight, until Australian authorities began scrutinizing conditions on the islands decades later.
P#S126 is among the more personal pieces of plantation scrip in the Pacific record: the issuer, signatory, and effective sovereign are the same man.