Catalog
1 Tanga
| Issuer | Portuguese Ceylon |
|---|---|
| Year | 1621-1640 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | 1 mm |
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| Obverse description | Crowned Portuguese royal coat of arms occupying the central field, surmounted by an ornate crown with scrolled elements. The quartered shield displays the distinctive heraldic charges of the Portuguese monarchy, including castles and spheres. The design is rendered in the hammered style characteristic of colonial Portuguese coinage of the early 17th century. A beaded border encircles the entire design. The initials C and Lo appear in the field, denoting the issuing authority of Portuguese Ceylon. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Portuguese Ceylon's tanga coinage occupied an awkward monetary position — struck for a colonial trading post whose commercial language was already dominated by local Mughal and South Indian currency systems. The tanga denomination itself was borrowed from the existing monetary vocabulary of the Indian Ocean trade networks rather than imposed from Lisbon.
KM#9 spans nearly two decades of production at Colombo, a range that almost certainly reflects multiple die pairs and subtle weight drift across the issue. No single mint master oversaw the full run.