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Tin Animal Money, The Crocodile - (2)
The pictures show four large tin ingots in the shape of a crocodile. These are generally larger than normally found but typical of those from Perak and recognised universally as Perak Animal Money. The one on the left is a partially hollow version, which makes it a real collector's piece. Very nicely cast it is in good condition although wear and tear has caused some deterioration in the centre of the back which has resulted in a small hole. The others are solid cast. Each would have the value of a small fraction of one tin cent based on the amount of tin by weight which could be exchanged for one Spanish Silver dollar.
Taking our experience with other forms of tin money, plus all the above into account and the fact that these items were interchangeable across all the Malay States and Sumatra (for tin always had a defined value by weight) we would date these crocodiles as 18th century from Perak. There are several other samples of tin money in this archive, most of which we have labelled as being from Perak. However there is some dispute about one other crocodile held in our collection as some books suggest that it is probably much later and from Selangor or Malacca and therefore we have given it a later date.
One of these s on display in Han Chin Pet Soo Museum.
To see and read more about other crocodiles in our collection, click here.
To read about the history of Perak Tin Animal Money, click here.
To read about the book "Tin Hat and Animal Money", click here.