The Keping was a denomination issued for circulation in the Straits Settlements, where the Company needed small-change coinage compatible with local trading customs. These pieces were struck at Birmingham's Soho Mint under Matthew Boulton's contract with the Company — the same arrangement that would later produce the famous Cartwheel pennies for Britain. Boulton's steam-powered presses delivered a consistency that hand-struck local kepings had never achieved, which is partly why Company issues displaced indigenous coinage so effectively across the Malay Peninsula.
The two KM numbers reflect minor die varieties across the production run rather than separate authorizations.
The Keping was a denomination issued for circulation in the Straits Settlements, where the Company needed small-change coinage compatible with local trading customs. These pieces were struck at Birmingham's Soho Mint under Matthew Boulton's contract with the Company — the same arrangement that would later produce the famous Cartwheel pennies for Britain. Boulton's steam-powered presses delivered a consistency that hand-struck local kepings had never achieved, which is partly why Company issues displaced indigenous coinage so effectively across the Malay Peninsula.
The two KM numbers reflect minor die varieties across the production run rather than separate authorizations.