More on Dutch coins

When I was in Majestic market, South Jakarta, I saw a vendor of used articles selling coins dating back from the Dutch colonial times.

I bought a coin with a nominal value of two and a half Dutch guilders or a ringgit, in Indonesian, which in those days was worth US$1. The coin, minted in 1937, ten years after my birth, is still in a fine condition as it was circulated only until the Dutch Indies administration surrendered to the Japanese occupational forces in 1942. Besides, this coin rarely changed hands because indigenous people rarely had it.

Then I found among the vendor's coins, in a worn-out condition, a coin of 2.5 cents denomination, popularly known as a benggol in Indonesian. It is made of copper and still looks good. When I looked at it more closely, I found that it was minted in 1945, the year when the Republic of Indonesia was proclaimed. Most probably, the coin was then yet to be put into circulation.

The Dutch words "Nederlandsch Indie, 2.5 cent" are inscribed on one side of the coin and on the other side there is a Javanese inscription reading "Sapara patangpuluh rupiyah" (one-fortieth of a rupiah) and an Arabic inscription, which I cannot read.

Unlike the benggol coin, the ringgit coin has the following inscription in Dutch: "Munt van het Koningkrijk (old spelling) der Nederlanden, 2.5 G, 1937:" on one side and on the other side there is another Dutch inscription reading "Wilhelmina Koningin der Nederlanden."

The ringgit coin has no Javanese inscription on it perhaps because the Dutch colonial ruler thought the Javanese and the Madurese would only use coins of 1/2 cent, 1 cent and 2.5 cents denomination, as John Iskandar wrote in The Jakarta Post of April 3, 2001.

SUNARTO PRAWIROSUJANTO

Jakarta