1619 - 1630 - Portuguese Ceilão
Silver - Tanga

SPECIFICATIONS Denomination Tanga Alloy Silver Type Struck Diameter 15. mm Thickness _._ mm Weight mean 2.68 gms Weight 2.27 gms Shape Round Edge Smooth DieAxis _____° Mint Colombo
	Codrington PL 113 ; Gomes F2:22.01 ; KM #8

Obverse : Crowned Coat of arms of Portugal within line-dotted-line circles
Reverse : Gridiron of Saint Laurence and flames below within dotted-line-dotted circles.

The emblem of Saint Laurence is the gridiron with the flames below on which he was martyr in 258 AD.

Codrington (VIII-22:c,p.100) lists it among undated silver coins of rough execution with crowned Coat of arms and the Gridiron.
For the undated Ceylon Tangas Codrington (VIII-23:p.102) gives a range of weight from 2.08 to 2.60 grams with a mean of 2.29 grams stating that the standard was probably as high as 2.60 grams.

For this type issued under D. Filippe III (1621-1640) Gomes (F3:16.01) gives a weight range of 2.16-3.2 grams.

The undated gridiron Tangas of this Era followed a small issue of undated Tangas bearing TA monogram and were succeeded by dated issues commencing 1631.

In Grogan section on Ceylon the Tanga is illustrated with (1317) -- 16/15.5 mm and 2.36 grams and attributed to D. Filippe II (1598-1621) with No Date (1619-1630).

Text from
* Ceylon Coins and Currency By H. W. Codrington. Colombo 1924
  Chapter VIII Portuguese - Plate xxx. Page xxx
* The Coins of the Dutch Overseas Territories- 1601-1948
  C. Scholten, 1953, Amsterdam: Jacques Schulman. page xxx-xxx
* Moedas Portuguesas 1128-1988, by Alberto Gomes. Lisbon 1987
* Collection Henry Thomas Grogan, J. Schulman, Auction 23-02-1914.
* Non-Islamic and Western Colonies since 600 AD by by Michael Mitchiner.

I thank Jan Lingen who kindly sent me the 300 dpi scans of these rare coin from his collection and are displayed at xxx dpi.