NEW BOOK: DUTCH EAST INDIES PLANTATION TOKENS

This, joint, new English publication of the plantation money in the former Netherlands East Indies is an improved version of the, in 2001, published book , on the same subject, with the title : “Plantation-, Merchant-, and Mining Money of the Netherlands East Indies”, by A.J. Lansen & L.T. Wells jr. In this edition is a description of 354 tokens, with a lot of interesting new details, including 29 new items and 6 new unmentioned estates.

Each token is identified by its denomination, shape ,size, weight, metal composition and die axis position. Insofar as possible, an illustration has been provided.

The book has an introduction in Dutch and English, followed by a geographical list of metal token issuing estates and companies during a specified issuing period.

The catalogue is in English. In the description of the tokens is a reference- indication- number given of the 2001 edition of Lansen & Wells ( La/We)

In a supplement is a description of 3 Dutch-English estates with settlements in British North Borneo. At the end is a concordance compilation with the new numbers of this revised edition, the Lansen/Wells numbers and the C. Scholten numbers.

The authors hopes that this book, compiled after many years of intensive scientific research, get the interest of many collectors and numismatists.

Technical data:
Book format: A4; hardcover, pages: 178, illustrations: colour. Private-publication, on one’s own account. Price: 29,50 Euro, excluding shipping costs. Prepaid payment: by cash or bank account : NL38ABNA 0621998699 to: A.J. Lansen e/o IJsselstein, The Netherlands. Postal address: A.J. Lansen Haanderik 94 3401 ET IJsselstein. The Netherlands. Mail to: ajlansen@caiway.nl .

In the course of the second half of the nineteenth century, private companies in the Dutch East Indies began to issue their own means of payment for use on their estates. Metal tokens were issued from c.1870 on, and paper notes printed from c. 1890. Th.e heydays revolved around the turn of the century and lasted for about twenty years, although some series date from the later period 1900-1915. Most estate money originated and circulated in areas of the east coast of Sumatra.

Th.e main reason to issue these means of payment was a shortage of silver coins in the estate zones. Many of these estates, especially on the east coast of Sumatra, were situated in areas barely protected by the Dutch authorities in the 1890s. Hence, silver money for salary payments was only occasionally available. But when it was, it posed a serious risk to the companies using it to make payments. Other reasons also played a role. .The plantation workers were paid in legal tender money only at the end of their contractual period. .The plantation currency they received in the meantime on a monthly basis served as a small advance they could use for their daily expenses. In addition, it also contributed to ensuring that they would not prematurely leave the estate. .The often-heard complaint that it was enforced on them knowing they could only spend it in shops on the estate itself, has little validity; in the remote rural areas this was anyhow the case, even on estates which issued no tokens.

Estate Money of the Dutch East Indies was first described in two catalogues of the collection of the Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen published in Batavia in 1886 and 1896. In the 1886 edition, only 25 paper notes from 8 issuing companies are reported, together with 8 metal tokens and 4 Javanese tokens made from bamboo; in the second edition of 1896, already 261 paper notes issued by 92 companies are reported, together with a large number of metal tokens, approximately 200 pieces.

C. Scholten’s Munten van de Nederlandsche gebiedsdelen overzee (1951) contains a list Particuliere munten van de ondernemingen in Nederlands-Indië, with the metal tokens known to him. W.W. Woodside made a survey in his handwritten Catalogue of East Indies Estate Tokens (1963), which also mentions means of payment made of bamboo and paper.

In 1992 I published my own inventory, in which all the then known metal tokens were described. It was followed, in 2001, by the book I wrote together with L.T. Wells (hence referred to as the ‘LaWe’): Plantage-, Handels- en Mijngeld van Nederlands-Indië, which has since become the standard reference. Some metal tokens are also mentioned by other authors, i.a. by P. Menzel, Deutschsprachige Notmünzen und Geldersatzmarken im Ausland. Band III (1997), by Jerry F. Schimmel, German Tokens Part II Colonial Issues, Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland and other Areas (1988), and by Saran Singh, The Encyclopaedia of the coins of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei (1996), and most recently in the catalogue of the exhibition Oeang, ruil- en betaalmiddelen in Indië, organized at the Bronbeek Museum on the occasion of the 300th meeting of the Numismatische Kring Oost-Nederland in 1999.

Due to the rarity of these tokens, however, a lot of things remained unclear or were missing from the aforementioned publications. The weights of the tokens have never been published systematically, and neither have their sizes. And a pilot study by the author of the metal composition of some token series showed that the alloys in many cases differ from what was hitherto assumed. It so appeared that tokens supposedly made of nickel, copper-nickel and bronze, did not at all occur in the Dutch East Indies series, whereas the most common so-called ‘white metal’ tokens are actually made in ‘german silver’ (or alpaca, an alloy of copper, zinc and nickel).

These findings have led to a large-scale investigation into the estate tokens present in a dozen of the most important collections, both national and international, as well as those of the former Geldmuseum in Utrecht (now curated by De Nederlandsche Bank). In addition, numerous data have been obtained by corresponding with many collectors worldwide. The 850+ tokens have all been measured, weighed and photographed, and each alloy has been analyzed by means of X-ray 9uorescence (XRF).

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