The Voice in the Wilderness Chapter 23 & 24

Chapter 23

Unsolved Mystery at The Opening

¡°Gary, you know I¡¯d walked in and out of your showrooms; seeing most if not all of your tin moneys displayed thus far. Today I had to challenge you with this question; i.e. what have you Gary got to say in a nut shell about the so call Tin Money of Malacca as a World Shared Heritage?¡± Mayor James asked seriously.

¡°Thanking you Mayor for your asking. The simplest answer to your question is C.I.A.!¡± Gary laughed.

¡°Serious, Gary you mean C.I.A. ¨C Central Investigation Dept. of America? What has it got to do with our Malacca Tin Currency?¡± Mayor was caught off guard.

¡°Pardon me Mayor, you¡¯re definitely wrong, Mayor. What I meant was that these little tin currency products encompass the ultimate combinations of the Chinese, Indian, and Arabic cultural renaissance, transformations and manifestations all combined; where having understood would yield the ultimate solutions toward total absolute World Peace for mankind!¡±

¡°Ow! Such heavy stuffs to chew; but how can you substantiate your claim?¡± Mayor turn from a passerby of tin money to a serious follower ¨C intend. ¡°It¡¯s a long story, be patience..¡± Gary said.

Upon reaching the entrance to the underground tunnel with the tin crocodile shield, Mayor asked another probing question ¡°what does this E.A.R.T.H. stands for then?¡± pointing to this word on the crocodile¡¯s back.

¡°To a simple layman, its mere earth ¨C the planet we live on. But to my understanding thus far, it¡¯s Enlightened Attitude Resolves Tension and Hatredof the world!¡±

Suddenly, walls and grounds around vicinity turned ¡°hostile¡± with concussions, shaky and noisy followed by the slow opening of the shield and with orange-colored rays that Mayor, Gary and mayor¡¯s bodyguards quickly ran for cover.

It must have taken quite a while until all things seemed settled before Gary moved forward to the opening followed by Mayor and his men. An unique fragrance surfaced from the opening but before anything else Mayor advised everyone not to move nearer and quickly his bodyguards covered back the tin shield. ¡°Better called it a day, discuss again before any untoward things happen.¡± Mayor said.

¡°Congratulation Kelly, happy for you! Heard you¡¯d finally found your life time partner; and may we know who is the lucky man?¡± Tea lady Nancy rushed towards Kelly who¡¯s accompanied Charles back to the office.

¡°You must as well ask your chairman!¡± Kelly points towards the stunned Chairman. Everyone who initially wanted to join in the congratulatory wishes hesitated and quickly retreated back to their respective seats.

Actually Charles had ¡°sold¡± all his shares to Gary; with arrangement where Gary¡¯s only his (shares) temporary custodian; at least until Kelly¡¯s departure ¡°at her own accord¡±! Having done so, what is the point for the ¡®resigned¡¯ Kelly to assume the position of Mrs. Chairman now that this Chairman is a toothless tiger? Worse to come was that Chairman would be going for one month¡¯s annual leaves beginning tomorrow! Last but not least, wouldn¡¯t it be too late for her to retract back her resignation letter, now that the whole office had come to know?

Chapter 24

Types of Malacca Tin Money

On the way back Gary said to Mayor ¡°In a nut shell, Mayor, we can generally categorized Malacca Tin Money base upon the following:-

1.) The Malay Sultanate (1400 ¨C 1511) & Islamic Tin Money ¨C

Parameswara, a Srivijayan Hindu Prince and forth ruler of Tamasik ( now Singapore ), was forced out by the Siamese at the end of the 14^th century flee to Muar, Sungai Ujong in Johore before finally arriving in the Bertam River. When he saw a mouse deer outwit a dog while he was resting under the Melaka tree, and took what he saw as a good omen. He¡¯d decided to establish a kingdom there and name the new form empire Melaka (Malacca).

In 1409, Malacca became a strategic trading port connecting the east and west; with many traders from Sumatra, India, China visited and settling in. Parameswara also form strategic alliance with the Kingdom of Pasai in North Sumatra. In 1414, he¡¯d married the daughter of her Muslim Ruler, and embraced Islam, assuming the Muslim name of Iskandar Shah. The Malacca Sultanate then which was very much influenced by the Javanese Majapahit Hindu Empire began to be overshadowed by the new Islamic culture. By mid 15^th century, the Islamic Culture had already dominated majority portion of the western part of the Malay Archipelago.

During the height of the Malacca Sultanate Empire in the 15^th century, traders and merchants used gold dust, silver bars, tin blocks, tin ingots and tin coins in their transactions. Tin ingots are either square or round blocks of tin designed with various floral patterns in weight of I kati ( 600 grammes ) and 1.5 kati ( 900 grammes) blocks.

During the reign of Sultan Muzaffar Shah ( Raja Kassim 1445 -1459), tin pitis coinage were introduced, a special feature of these coinages were the Arabic Cultural influence notably wordings such as ¡°Al-Sultan Al-Adil¡± meaning the Just Sultan and ¡°Nasir Al Dunia Wa¡¯ldin¡± which stands for Helper of the World & Religion Islam¡±. Tin coinages were also circulated by subsequent Sultan Mansur Shah ( Raja Abdullah ) 1459 -1477and Sultan Ahmad bin Mahmud Shah 1488 ¨C 1511.¡± Gary explained.

2.) The Chinese ¨C Animal and Admiral Zhen He (1405 ¨C 1433)Tin MoneyMalacca had a good relationship with the Ming Dynasty¡¯s Emperor Yong-le, resulting in Admiral Zheng-he¡¯s visit in 1405. Parameswara had also met the Chinese Emperor in China to receive a Letter of Friendship, hence making Malacca the first foreign Kingdom to attain such privilege. Besides barter trading, coins and other money were extensively used in Melaka then. Early Chinese merchants introduced tin animal money in the form of rooster, tortoise, fish and crocodile and trade according to their weights. During Zheng-he¡¯s trade missions to Malacca, copper coins were issued and used by most merchants but these copper coins were subsequently replaced with tin money because tin was readily available in Malacca then. Also in circulations were Admiral Zheng-he¡¯s tin cash coins with inscriptions of the various Emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) in two denominations i.e. one cash eg. Huang song Tong Bao and double cash eg. Song Yuan Tong Bao etc.