Catalog
Pitis Unta - Anonymous
| Issuer | Brunei |
|---|---|
| Year | 1618-1868 |
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| Shape | Round |
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| Obverse description | A camel depicted in left profile, rendered in low relief in the primitive cast style characteristic of Bruneian tin pitis coinage. The animal's tail is curled downward, resting beneath stylised cloud motifs. The central device is contained within a beaded or dotted border encircling the field. The casting is rough, consistent with the hand-made production methods employed for this anonymous series. |
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| Reverse description | A stylised floral rosette occupies the central field, with radiating petals or leaf forms extending outward from the centre. Arabic (Jawi script) legends are distributed between the leaf or petal divisions, reading in a circular arrangement around the floral device. The overall design is characteristic of the anonymous Bruneian pitis series, executed in a low-relief cast technique typical of the period. |
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| Additional information |
Brunei's anonymous pitis circulated for roughly two and a half centuries under successive sultans without ever bearing a ruler's name — an unusual monetary arrangement that reflected the sultanate's administrative priorities rather than any shortage of regal ambition. The tin-lead alloy was locally sourced, Brunei controlling significant deposits, and the coins were cast rather than struck, placing them firmly in a Southeast Asian manufacturing tradition that persisted long after European milled coinage had penetrated regional trade networks.
Singh's cataloguing of this type as 13A acknowledges die and compositional variants within what appears superficially homogeneous; the anonymous attribution spanning 1618–1868 is a working scholarly assumption covering multiple reigns rather than a documented continuous issue.