1 Tanga

The Tanga was a Portuguese monetary unit transplanted to their Asian territories, and by 1645 Ceylon's coastal trading posts were under sustained pressure from the Dutch East India Company. The VOC had already seized much of the island's cinnamon-producing interior, and Portuguese minting activity on Ceylon was increasingly confined to the dwindling fortified enclaves around Colombo. This coin was struck against that backdrop of colonial retreat.

KM#15 is among the later issues of Portuguese Ceylon coinage before the Dutch completed their conquest in 1658, ending over 150 years of Iberian presence on the island.