October 22, 2015 – The sultanate of Palembang on the Island of Sumatra (Dutch East Indies, today’s Indonesia) issued coins until 1821. Nearly all are lead-tin and uniface, mostly inscribed in Arabic. While previous references gave them only sketchy and inaccurate coverage, with two nineteenth century works each illustrating fewer than 30 varieties, a comprehensive catalog has been prepared on this often neglected numismatic material at last.
Cover and page from Frank S. Robinson, The Palembang Coins.
Frank S. Robinson has compiled a little book, with background information, properly cataloging 291 distinct numbered varieties, all with clear enlarged photographs, plus rarity ratings on a ten-point scale. The work is the culmination of a project intensively analyzing 35,000 Palembang coins.
Robinson, a former New York State administrative law judge, is a longtime dealer in ancient and world coins, and author of seven previous books including ‘Confessions of a Numismatic Fanatic’, and ‘The Case for Rational Optimism’.
The price of the catalog is 4.99 dollars in the US, and 6.50 dollars abroad.
For ordering a copy of the catalog, please contact Frank S. Robinson at Box 8600, Albany, NY 12208, or by email.
More information is available at the author’s website.
A quick access to a wealth of information on Palembang is provided by Wikipedia.
And if you are interested to learn more about the Battle of Palembang in WWII, please click here.