CURIOUS COINS FROM THE COCOS ISLANDS
some 600 miles south-west of Java Head, and one of the remotest places in the Empire, the BBC recently’ received an‘ unusual form of subscription to its overseas journal, London Calling. Out of. the envelope rolled a number of bone coins of various shapes-the local currency in rupees and cents (see opposite page). On each coin was stamped its value, the year of issue. the arms ‘of the islands, and the name of the Governor, J. S. Clunies Ross-by whose secretary the subscription was sent. the Keeling Cocos Islands, The story of how the Keeling Islands came to have a currency of their own dates back to the third decade of last century when Captain John Clunies Ross started a settlement on Home Island. At one time the currency consisted of stamped notes on sheepskin, signed by the head of the Ross family. The father of the present Governor tried to introduce Strait Settlements silver coins-the islands are included in the Colony of the Straits Settlements-but the experiment failed because the coins were all used up in two years, having been made into brooches, ear-rings, and other ornaments for the women. The present owner and Governor of the Islands, J. S. Clunies Ross, is the great-grandson of the founder. He lives on Home Island, where he rules over a community of some 1,400 Malays who work at the cultivation of coco-nuts and the production of copra.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 57, 26 July 1940, Page 17
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242CURIOUS COINS FROM THE COCOS ISLANDS New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 57, 26 July 1940, Page 17
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