Brunei pitis

The pitis was a currency of Brunei last issued in 1868 which circulated into the 20th century. It is also referred to as the picil by Antonio Pigafetta and some variants of it were referred to as the kue and the paku (English: piece). It was later replaced by the Straits dollar in Brunei, which is valued at 4000 pitis or 800 paku and at par with the Spanish dollar.

Before the introduction of coins to Brunei, Cowrie shells were used as bartering currency in purchasing small items. Brunei is also famous for its bronze teapots, which were used as currency in barter trade along the coast of North Borneo.

The first coinage used in Brunei were Chinese coins which were first type of coins to be referred to as the pitis in Brunei. Its use probably started with the Chinese contact with Brunei between the 9th and 12th century.

When Antonio Pigafetta who was Ferdinand Magellan's chronicler visited Brunei in 1521, he wrote "The money is made out of bronze pierced in the middle in order that it may be strung. On each side of it are four Chinese characters, which are letters of the Great King of China. We call the money picils." Picils is a reference to the pitis.

In the 16th century, Brunei started issuing its own currency. These coins were known as pitis, with the Chinese "pitis" being referred to as kue to differentiate them from the Bruneian coins. Chinese coins continued to circulate in Brunei until around the second half of the 19th century.

In addition to pitis and kue, silver Spanish dollars circulated with an exchange rate of 4000 pitis = 1 dollar. Iron ingots were also used as money, with 100 flat, inch square pieces worth 1 dollar. Miniature cannons between 6 inches (150 mm) to a foot long were also used as currency.

In 1906, Sultan Hashim agreed to have a British Resident in Brunei. He also acquiesced that the Straits dollar, used by the British in the Straits Settlement (Malaya), Singapore, North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak, should be used in Brunei. Despite the introduction of the Straits dollar, the previous local monies were still used with peculiar exchange rates in the earlier days. All the previous pitis coins were called paku (English: piece) where 8 paku were equal to 1 cent or kayu (sakayu). However, officially, 4000 pitis equaled one dollar.

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Wikipedia