LESLIE PAULYN DATULAYTA

IX – ST. PETER

PILONCITOS
They are the first recognized
coinage in the Pre-colonial
Philippines, circulated between
the 9th and 12th century. They
emerged when increasing trade
made barter incovenient. It was
made of crude rounded gold
coin with flat sides with diameter
of about three eights of an inch.

The term Piloncitos (a.k.a

Bulawan) comes from the word
pilon, a local sugar container that resembles the coin. They are engraved
with the Brahmanic character "ma" which looks like an upside down "R". We
can only guess that this character refers to the pre-colonial kingdom of Ma-
yi which is roughly the Philippines we know today. Many piloncitos were
unknowingly melted into jewelry in the past and very few exist today.

GOLD BARTER RING

The Gold Barter Ring was being
used in trading with foreign
merchants as a form of money or
mode of exchange between the
18th to 14th century. It is a coin
made of gold in the form of a
ring tubular and bent to circles
with 4.8 cm in diameter, 16.9 in
grams and was distinguished as
14k red gold. It had neither
designs nor inscriptions. Existing
literature states that barter rings
were introduced to the Philippines by West Asians in the 1st century AD
and was used until the 16th century.