indonesia; china cash Unpublished double-sided Yuan Feng Tong Bao late 1700s, Bali Island Kingdoms, Indonesia good-g; very-good-vg

Very crude Chinese characters Yuan Feng Tong Bao // Yuan Feng Tong Bao. 25mm, 3.70 grams. cf. Zeno 375215 (this coin); Mitchiner -; Millies -.

These zinc coins were cast in Bali in the late 18th, early 19th century, and possibly later. They are found along with 18th century Qing dynasty cash. Unpublished type, unique.

Before the Dutch arrival, Bali was not a single unified state, but a collection of Hindu kingdoms ruled by Balinese rajas descended culturally and politically from Majapahit. By the 17th–19th centuries, Bali was fragmented into rival kingdoms such as Gelgel, later Klungkung, Karangasem, Buleleng, Badung, Tabanan, and Mengwi. None of them issued coins - this type of Zinc cash is probably the only attributable type of coins from this period from one of the Bali Kingdoms. The Dutch first established influence in parts of Bali in the mid-1800s but did not fully subjugate the island until a series of brutal military campaigns between 1846 and 1908, including the famous puputan (ritual mass suicides) of Balinese courts. 

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