SRI LANKA (CEYLON) silver fishhook larin (17th century)
$55.00
SRI LANKA (CEYLON), larin, no date (17th century), with pseudo-arabic legend,hairpin shaped, silver, 26x10mm, 3.4g, F
Out of stock
Description
During the 17th and 18th centuries the Indian Ocean trade was contested by the Ottomans, the Safavids, the Portugues, and the Dutch. Odd shaped coins, shaped like hairpins, were made by various manufacturers. When they got to Ceylong they were typically bent in half, so if we see them that way we say they are from Ceylon. Some have legible Persian legends, others have “pseudo-Persian” legends.
Ceylon has been part of the South Asian culture complex for several millennia. It took part in the Indian Ocean trade from the start. It was a rich prize, and several of the European colonizing nations attempted to hold it. The British were the last to come and go. Meanwhile, ancient ethnic tensions remained and broke out in a civil war after independence.
By “Modern World Coins” we mean here, generally, the round, flat, shiny metal objects that people have used for money and still do. “Modern,” though, varies by location. There was some other way they were doing their economies, and then they switched over to “modern coins,” then they went toward paper money, now we’re all going toward digital, a future in which kids look at a coin and say “What’s that?” We’ll say: “We used to use those to buy things.” Kids will ask “How?” The main catalog reference is the Standard Catalog of World Coins, to which the KM numbers refer.
