African Quiz

[Afrasi]

Who can tell me the country, the ruler and the denomination of this coin?

All answers are to find on the coin!

But not easy ... 


Glory and honour to the winner! Good luck!

[andyg]

tricky....

Best guess Portuguese colonial - possibly minted in Goa then exported?

[Afrasi]

Portuguese colonial is correct. But which colony, which ruler and which denomination?

[Harald]

Mozambique, obviously 15 réis

[RHM22]

I will guess Angola - Pedro II - 1 soldo, and if that's right, I believe I will be elected president.

[Afrasi]

2 of 3 points for Harald. Only the ruler is now missing ...

[andyg]

John V.

This one was minted in Mozambique in 1725 I think, earlier coinage having been imported from Goa...

[Afrasi]

Yes! 1 point to England!

Left picture: M arms E for Mocambique.

Right picture shows something like

o
I I ?


o
I     as abbreviation of Joao.

Second I and reverse S (should be a 5 :shock: ) stand for 15 (Reis).

[RHM22]

Glory and honor to AJG! African coins are way too confusing for me.

[Afrasi]

John V. This one was minted in Mozambique in 1725 I think, earlier coinage having been imported from Goa...

I think this one was produced at Goa, too, if you compare it with the piece of 15 Bazarucos of Goa, KM # 88.

Do you kow which coins of Goa did circulate in Mocambique?

[andyg]

My 1725 Mozambique source is "Ancient ruins and vanished civilisations of southern Africa", R Summers, 1971, with thanks to google books.  He quotes a source for this reference but I cannot get that page on google books

[andyg]

This book is quite an interesting read on coins of Goa,
Contributions to the study of Indo-Portuguese numismatics By Joseph Gerson Cunha, 1880
It didn't exactly tell me what I was looking for, but quite interesting nevertheless.  Just a shame that only pages 80-94 are previewed.

[Afrasi]

Very helpful text! The triangle Harar-DiegoSuarez-Goa (including Mombasa, Kilwa, Mogadisho, Pemba, Zanzibar, Mocambique, Oman and others) is numismatically very interesting.
But:
My English-German dictionary with about 1,500 pages does not know the word "tutenag". Also I cannot understand the difference between "tin" and "pewter", both is chemical "Sn" as far as I know.

[andyg]

Tutenag : A name given in India to the metallic zinc. The Chinese copper is also called by this name, which is alloyed with zinc, and forms a very hard and white metal, but little disposed to tarnish.

Pewter : is tin alloyed with various other metals to make it harder.  See here

I'd read that coins were made in Goa then exported to Africa before, but I can't find where I'd read that....

[RHM22]

I don't know much about metallurgy, but I've tried melting a few different things, and I know that pewter is almost completely zinc with either lead, bronze or antimony thrown in (as a stabilizer, I suppose). Maybe that's why pewter is the same. The chemical symbol for zinc is Zn by the way.

Not to change the subject, but would pewter be known as 'spelter' in Germany?