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1 Kupang Sumatra
| Issuer | Srivijaya |
|---|---|
| Year | 680-1250 |
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| Composition | Gold (Potentially an electrum mixture) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Plain, convex hammered gold surface bearing a single incuse impressed character in the centre of the field. The character is the syllable Mā rendered in early Nāgarī script, interpreted as an abbreviation for māṣa, a traditional South and Southeast Asian unit of weight. The impression is lightly struck and characteristic of the primitive incuse technique employed throughout the Srivijayan kupang series. The remainder of the flan is unadorned, with an irregular, naturally rounded edge consistent with the hammered fabric. |
| Reverse script | Devanagari |
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| Edge | Log in to see details |
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| Additional information |
The Srivijayan kupang is among the earliest gold coinage associated with maritime Southeast Asia, issued by a polity whose commercial reach stretched from the Malay Peninsula to the Khmer borderlands. Srivijaya controlled the Strait of Malacca during its peak, and these small fractional gold pieces likely functioned within that trade network rather than as everyday domestic currency. The electrum question remains genuinely unresolved — spectrographic analysis of comparable pieces has yielded inconsistent gold-to-silver ratios, suggesting either deliberate alloying or regional ore variation.