Philippine Coinage Evolution

nais nyo bang malaman ang ating kasaysayan? mga hawak ninyong barya, ano nga ba ang mga kwento sa likod nito..

"Indo-Pacific Beads"

Origins
In an era before coined money was widely used, Indo-Pacific beads were made first at a site called Arikamedu in South India ca. 200 BC. The manufacture then moved in sequence to Ceylon, South Thailand, Java and finally Malaya. By about 1200–1300 AD the larger Majapahit beads, excavated today in the interior of Java, had supplanted it. Since these factory sites have been dated, archaeologists now use the beads to date sites, though whether beads rose to the level of metals, salt, cloth, and cowries as "standard" trade goods is uncertain.
The first indigenous metallic coinage in the region, ca. 750–850 AD, comes from the Javanese kingdom of Sailendra (Chinese: Ho-ling). These roughly dome-shaped silver of irregular weight bore stamps of a flowing vase, and the sandalwood flower (quatefoil). By 850 AD weights had been standardized at 20 rattis to a Massa of about 2.4 grams. Silver and gold coins of Massa and fractional denominations were issued until about 1300 AD, with changes in shape and quality of inscription marking periods of issue. The gold piloncitos of the Philippines are a late offshoot of the gold coinage, while the bean-like silver "namo" series, of the Malay isthmus was presumably an offshoot of the silver coinage and may have evolved into the bullet coins of Siam
Piloncitos are so small, some are of the size of a corn kernel and weigh from 0.09 to 2.65 grams of fine gold. Large piloncitos weighing 2.65 grams approximate the weight of one mass. Piloncitos have been excavated from Mandaluyong, Bataan, the banks of the Pasig River, Bumbungan River, Batangas, Marinduque, Samar, Leyte and some areas in Mindanao. They have been found in large numbers in Indonesian archeological sites leading to questions of origin. That gold was mined and worked in the Philippines is evidenced by many Spanish accounts,