The VOC's experimental keping coinage of the 1780s was produced for circulation in the company's Sumatran territories, where existing trade coinages — including locally cast tin pieces — were proving inadequate for small transactions. The 1786 pattern issues were never approved for general release, leaving surviving examples almost entirely in institutional or specialist collections.
Scholt II#959.c distinguishes this from the other keping pattern varieties by die characteristics documented in the Dutch colonial numismatic literature. The VOC itself was less than a decade from insolvency by this date.
The VOC's experimental keping coinage of the 1780s was produced for circulation in the company's Sumatran territories, where existing trade coinages — including locally cast tin pieces — were proving inadequate for small transactions. The 1786 pattern issues were never approved for general release, leaving surviving examples almost entirely in institutional or specialist collections.
Scholt II#959.c distinguishes this from the other keping pattern varieties by die characteristics documented in the Dutch colonial numismatic literature. The VOC itself was less than a decade from insolvency by this date.