2 Stuiver Dutch Malacca (1641 - 1824) Silver

Malay Peninsula. Silver 2 Stuiver.

Denomination: Imitative 2 Stuiver
Reference: KM-59
 Mint Year: dated 1745, probably struck around 1834-1836 by Singapore Merchants of the Terengganu District in the Malay Peninsula.

Diameter: 19mm

Material: Silver

Weight: 1.4gm 

Introduced by Singapore merchants between 1834-1836 and suppressed in 1844. The token coins are well documented, however we could not find a single other example in the name of the Province of Zelland. This might be well an unpublished example! 

Terengganu (Malay pronunciation: [tərəŋɡanu]; Jawi:ترڠڬانو, Terengganu Malay: Tranung, Ganu, Teganu, Ganung, Teganung), formerly spelled Trengganu or Tringganu, is a sultanate and constitutive state of federal Malaysia. The state is also known by its Arabic honorific, Dāru l-Īmān (“Abode of Faith”). The coastal city of Kuala Terengganu which stands at the mouth of the broad Terengganu River is both the state and royal capital as well as the largest city in Terengganu. There are many islands located close to the coast of Terengganu state, such as Redang Island.

There are several theories on the origin of the name “Terengganu”. One theory attributes the name’s origin to terang ganu, Malay for ‘bright rainbow’.⁵ Another story, said to have been originally narrated by the ninth Sultan of Terengganu, Baginda Omar, tells of a party of hunters from Pahang roving and hunting in the area of what is now southern Terengganu. One of the hunters spotted a big animal fang lying on the ground. A fellow party member asked to which animal did the fang belong. The hunter, not knowing which animal, simply answered taring anu (Malay: ‘fang of something’). The party later returned to Pahang with a rich hoard of game, fur and sandalwood, which impressed their neighbours. They asked the hunters where did they source their riches, to which they replied, from the land of taring anu, which later evolved into Terengganu.  Terengganu was called Trangkanu (Thai: ตรังกานู) by the Siamese when it was under their influence. Terengganuans usually pronounce Terengganu as Tranung or Ganu.

The Malay Peninsula (Malay: Semenanjung Tanah Melayu) is a peninsulain Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southernmost point of the Asian mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Thailand, and the southernmost tip of Myanmar (Kawthaung) as well as the city state Singapore, indigenous to or historically inhabited by the Malays, an Austronesian people.

The Titiwangsa Mountains are part of the Tenasserim Hills system, and form the backbone of the Peninsula. They form the southernmost section of the central cordillera which runs from Tibet through the Kra Isthmus (the Peninsula’s narrowest point) into the Malay Peninsula. The Strait of Malacca separates the Malay Peninsula from the Indonesian island of Sumatra while the south coast is separated from the island of Singapore by the Straits of Johor.

The Malay term Tanah Melayu is derived from the word Tanah (land) and Melayu (Malays), thus it means “the Malay land”. The term can be found in various Malay texts, of which the oldest dating back to the early 17th century. It is frequently mentioned in the Hikayat Hang Tuah, a well known classic tales associated with the legendary heroes of Malacca Sultanate. Tanah Melayu in the text is consistently employed to refer to the area under Malaccan dominance.

In the early 16th century, Tomé Pires, a Portuguese apothecary who stayed in Malaca from 1512 to 1515, writes an almost identical term, Terra de Tana Malaiowhich he referred to the southeastern part of Sumatra, where the deposed Sultan of Malacca, Mahmud Shah established his exiled government. The 17th century’s account of Portuguese historian, Emanuel Godinho de Erédia, noted on the region of Malaios surrounded by the Andaman Sea in the north, the entire Malacca Straitin the centre, a part of Sunda Strait in the south, and the western part of South China Sea in the east.

Prior to the foundation of Malacca, ancient and medieval references to a Malay peninsula exist in various foreign sources. According to several Indian scholars, the word Malayadvipa (“mountain-insular continent”), mentioned in the ancient Indian text, Vayu Purana, may possibly refer to the Malay peninsula.  Another Indian source, an inscription on the south wall of the Brihadeeswarar Temple, recorded the word Malaiur, referring to a kingdom in Malay peninsula that had “a strong mountain for its rampart”. The Greek source, Geographia, written by Ptolemy, labelled a geographical part of Golden Chersonese as Maleu-kolon, a term thought to derive from Sanskrit malayakolam or malaikurram. While the Chinese chronicle of Yuan dynasty mentioned the word Ma-li-yu-er, referring to a nation of Malay peninsula that threatened by the southward expansion of Sukhothai Kingdom under King Ram Khamhaeng. During the same era, Marco Polo made a reference to Malauir in his travelogue, as a kingdom located in the Malay peninsula, possibly similar to the one mentioned in Yuan chronicle.

In the early 20th century, the term Tanah Melayu was generally used by the Malays of the peninsula during the rise of Malay nationalism to describe uniting all Malay states on the peninsula under one Malay nation, although this ambition was largely realised with the formation of Persekutuan Tanah Melayu (Malay for “Federation of Malaya”) in 1948.