Piloncito

Among the earliest indigenous coinage of Southeast Asia, piloncitos predate Spanish colonization by several centuries and were already established trade currency when the first Chinese merchants documented them in contact accounts. The name itself is a Spanish colonial-era term imposed retroactively — the original Tagalog or Visayan designation, if one existed, was never recorded.

Most examples were recovered from burial sites or river dredging, which accounts for the survival of pieces in unexpectedly fine condition alongside others with heavy surface corrosion from prolonged soil contact.