Strange coin / token?

[greenman38]

Took my detector out for some fun today. Found lot of trash, a few coins (not enough to buy a beer), a bic lighter, and this weird coin. Guessing by it's size it's some kind of token. Spent about 4 hours in the sun visiting my sister, laughing, and enjoying our adventure. Ate great Chinese food for lunch, then a 4 hour drive home. All in all it was a great day..

 

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[steve_rowlands]

Very cool [emoji106]

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!! Good Times!!!!

 

[xcopperstax]

That is a monster of a coin or token! Could be a medal? No idea.

 

[Jason in Enid]

I lean more towards it being a coin. I cant ID the writing, it looks very middle-eastern but doesnt look like a modern arabic script. I would make a guess that its from somewhere in SW asia.

Edit - On looking at the enlarged pics, I DO think its an arabic script.

 

[HuntH2002]

Found an alike obverse. Kelantan pitis coin from Malay peninsula.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Found an alike obverse. Kelantan pitis coin from Malay peninsula.

Nice one, That looks like it!

 

[greenman38]

Thanks everyone for the info. I found pictures of it showing it to be a "syiling yasin duit lama pedang zulfikar" (or something like that), guessing from Malaysia. Still not sure if it's money or a token. One place said it's a magic coin, but none of the info is in English. I'll just caring it around and hope for some magic. Guess it was good that I craved Chinese food while visiting my sister.

 

[A2coins]

That's really cool looks like an ancient coin lol nice info on it you sure it didnt come with the Chinese food lol. Great hunt and post. Tommy

 

[greenman38]

Hey Tommy, it was in my fortune cookie. lol I'm just glad it was so big, I already have a bad stomach. The Chinese food wasn't the greatest where we ate at in San Francisco, but the sites were amazing.

 

[Red-Coat]

Funky item!

Kelantan had its own currency until Siam (now Thailand) ceded control to the British in 1909, who established an exchange bank as the Mercantile Bank of India in 1912 and then by the 1920s determined the Straits Dollar as the only currency.

The coinage system prior to that is poorly documented, but it was based on the ‘Keping’, subdivided into 10 ‘pitis’. All of the generally circulating coins were made from tin, with the pitis being holed to allow them to be strung. The two higher value coins - 1 keping and 10 kepings - were not holed but the latter was only issued in 1903/4 and then withdrawn because of large-scale counterfeiting. In earlier times there had also been several types of small, thin gold coins minted for use in Kelantan but generally used in trade, not as circulating coinage. None of the coins had this ‘man with two spears design’ and there’s no mention of it in Linehan’s paper: “Coins of Kelantan”.

The consensus is that these were talismans of a “keep me safe / make me well / bring me luck / make me rich” nature, with religious undertones. There are a number of different designs and some of them have been tentatively attributed to particular pieces of religious folklore and fable, but no-one seems to know for certain what the guy with two spears is all about.

Along with replicas of the old tin Pitis and Kepings, they’re still making them today. I read on a travel blog that someone had purchased a whole bunch of what he thought were old coins for 5 Ringitt each (about $1.20) at a market in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. The vendor freely told him they were modern replicas, made in Terengganu for sale as souvenir collectibles. These were some of the purchases (all modern-made copies, and only the very last item is a coin copy):

 

[Treasureman25]

Interesting find!

 

[greenman38]

The one I found is heavy, guessing it's bronze. Probable someone dropped their good luck charm. It's cool to know the history behind it, thanks. I'll carry it around and see if it works

 

[lenmac65]

Very interesting. Beautiful Morgan by the way; great toning.

 

[Trezurehunter]

Now that's a different looking piece. Nice find.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

Nice find. I’ll bet your heart stopped when you popped that one,mine would have

 

[islamoradamark]

Big heavy bronze coin NICE