1644 - Batavia

VOC - Half Stuiver

The half Stuivers were known as "tammekasje" (Tambakasi in Sinhala) in Lanka. About 1675, the Governor of Ceilon ordered from Negapatnam, Japanese bar coppercoined into "copper tammecassen". Codrington (page 111 13.) noted that many of the tammekassen found in Lanka are considerably lighter than the prescribed weight of 7.72 grams for those made at Batavia in 1644.

SPECIFICATIONS Denomination Half Stuiver Alloy Copper Type Struck Diameter 30. mm Thickness  mm Weight Legal 6.866 gms Weight 6.59 gms Shape round Edge Cast DieAxis O° Mint Nagapatam
	Like Indonesia KM#31

Obverse : The arms of Batavia (vertical sword) in inner circle along periphery the legend BATAVIA · ANNO · 1644 · with date on top and within outer circle
Reverse : VOC monogram below the value · ½ · ST · all within a line circle.
VOC monogram of the Dutch East India Company has a large V superimposed on OC.

The legal weight of the Nagapatam 5 Cash (from Scholten) make this speciman 4.3% under weight. Another higher grade speciman I obtained in Lanka was 12.2% under weight.

In Schloten the original 1644 half Stuivers is listed as Scarce, and the similer design Quarter Stiver as very rare RR.

The coin was scanned at 300dpi and displayed at 200dpi. This coin had not been cleaned.
It was purchased in Sri Lanka in November 1999 for my collection but subsequently found a better speciman. I showed it to a few experts in Colombo, including Rajah Wickremesinhe an expert collector who sold me the better coin and they all confirmed to me it appeared to be genuine. I subsequently cleaned it and got more confidence it was not recent fake.