1 Keping Cockerel facing left; Ugi

Reverse

Flower with 16 petals, identified as a tanjung tree's (Mimusops elengi), with encircling Lontara' inscription. Date in western Arabic numeral at bottom. Beads around border.

Script: Lontara

Lettering:
ᨓᨊᨘᨓᨈᨊᨕᨘᨁᨗ ᨔᨙᨉᨗᨀᨙᨄᨙ
1250

Unabridged legend:
Wanuwa tana ugi sédi képé(ng)
1250

Translation:
Land of Bugis, one keping
AH 1250 (=AD 1834)

Comment

This coin was issued by Christopher Ridout Read, a notable merchant from the firm A.L. Johnston & Company, Singapore, following the then recent trend of using cock token in trade. The coin's "Tana Ugi" legend on the reverse, presumably the Bugis homeland in South Sulawesi, was chosen by Read to avoid legal suite from Dutch East Indies companies (as had happened to previous tokens) who did not have jurisdiction in Sulawesi (Singh 1986: 446-447). It was probably also chosen so that Bugis sailors frequenting Singaporean port would readily adopt them. In some parts of Sulawesi, the use of these coins persisted until the early 20th century (Mead 2011: 5).

Obverse legend has an error تاته tata which should have been تانه tana "land". Lack of final -ng in "képéng" is customary in Lontara' orthography, not an error. Read's reverse design was the first to include bunga tanjung (flower of Mimusops elengi tree), and later extensively copied by other importers of tokens for trade with Sulawesi.

See:
Saran Singh (1986) The encyclopaedia of the coins of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, 1400-1986. pp: 446-447, 468
Mead, David (2011) "Coins of the realm: Some coins of the Dutch colonial period" http://sulang.org/sites/default/files/sulanglextopics004-v1.pdf, pp: 79-83.

Interesting fact

Price

Date	Mintage	VG	F	VF	XF	AU	UNC
1250 (1835)		-	-	-	-	-	-

Values in the table are based on evaluations by sales realized on Internet platforms. They serve as an indication only for 1 Keping (Cockerel facing left; Ugi) 1250 (1835) coin.