Malacca (1631-36)-AM tanga
This specimen was lot 3683 in Steve Album Auction 55 (Santa Rosa, CA, May 2026), where it sold for $264. The catalog description[1] noted, "PORTUGUESE MALACCA: Felipe III, 1621-1640, AR tanga, ND, struck in Goa for circulation in Malacca, crowned arms, A M across // TA monogram, D M across, NGC graded VF30." While this example lacks a date, the ones shown in Numista are dated 1631-36. A slightly later issue, with the obverse initials reversed ("M A"), was struck 1635-38. The reverse initials "A T D M" stand for "Asia Tanga de Malaca". Malacca was the main port of southeast Asia in the seventeenth century, a status held by Singapore and Jakarta today. The Portuguese conquered it in 1511 and held it until losing to the Dutch in 1641, who yielded to the English in 1795.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 3.0-3.2 g, 0.917 fine silver.
Catalog reference: SS-Sim-F3.21, Gomes-F3.10 (date on obverse) or F3.11 (date on reverse).
- Alberto Gomes and Francisco Antonio Magro, Moedas Portuguesas e do Território Que Hoje é Portugal: Catálogo das Moedas Cunhadas para o Continentes e Ilhas Adjacentes, para os Territórios do Ultramar e Grão-Mestres Portugueses da Ordem de Malta, 6ª Edição, Lisbon: Associação Numismática de Portugal, 2013.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Hanbing Feng, Auction 55, featuring Selections from the Swamperbob Gurney Collection of Cap & Ray 8 Reales, the Kenneth A. Bovenkamp Collection of Ottoman Coins and the 1914 Collection of World Coins, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2026.
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