Kelantan AH 1314 pitis
This specimen was lot 76011 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice Online Auction (Costa Mesa, CA, February 2025), where it did not sell. The catalog description[1] noted, "MALAYSIA. Kelantan. Pitis, AH 1314 (1896/7). Mansur. NGC AU Details--Environmental Damage." This specimen was offered again as lot 75511 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice Online Auction (Costa Mesa, CA, May 2025), where it sold for $65. Tin, which is common in Malaya, has been used on a number of occasions to make coinage altho it is not especially suitable for such a purpose. Kelantan, an independent sultanate since the late 1600's, gradually fell under British influence and then control. The British maintained Kelantan as a buffer state between Thailand (then Siam) and their colony of the Straits Settlements. Kelantan was occupied by Japan in December 1941 and was transferred to Thailand 1943-45. We don't know where this was struck; we think a local mint unlikely because of the central hole. Ten pitis made a keping.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 6.08 g, tin, 29.7 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: KM-10.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, February 2025 World Collectors Choice Online Auction - Ancients, World Coins & World Paper Money, David B. Simpson Medals & World Coins Part 1, Selections from the Richard Margolis Collection, and Selections from the L. E. Bruun Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2025.
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