Sarawak Coins Half Cent 1863 James Brooke Rajah

Sarawak Coins Half Cent 1863 James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak

Obverse: Bust of James Brooke surrounded by legend.
Lettering: J BROOKE RAJAH.

Reverse: Denomination within wreath surrounded by country and date.
Lettering: SARAWAK HALF CENT 1863.

Denomination: 1/2 Cent.
Issued By: James Brooke, Sarawak.
Year: 1863.
Shape: Round.
Composition: Copper.
Dimensions: 23 mm (Diameter).
Weight: 4.653 g.
Coin Edge: Plain.
Mint: Ralph Heaton and Son Mint, Birmingham, Great Britain.
Artist: Joseph Moore - Allan and Moore, Great Britain.
References: KM#2.

When James Brooke returned to England in 1863, he was knighted by Queen Victoria and Britain recognized Sarawak as an independent state. He also returned to England to order a full series of Sarawak coins. He arranged for copper coins with the denominations of 1/4, 1/2 and 1 Cent to be struck in Ralph Heaton Mint with the help of his British agents Buchanan, Hamilton & Co. The dies for these coins as well as the later copper coinage of 1870 were engraved by Joseph Moore.

Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak
Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak (29 April 1803, Secrore, near Benares, India — 11 June 1868, Burrator, Devon, England), was a British adventurer whose exploits in the Malay Archipelago made him the first White Rajah of Sarawak.
  Sir James Brooke, first visited the Eastern Archipelago on an unsuccessful trading trip in 1834, after an early career that included military service with the British East India Company and participation in the first Anglo-Burmese war (1825). Intent on furthering European settlement in the East, he purchased and fitted out an armed schooner with the fortune left to him by his father, and sailed again for the Indies in 1838. At Singapore (founded 20 years earlier by Sir Stamford Raffles), Brooke learned that Pengiran Muda Hassim, chief minister of the sultanate of Brunei, was engaged in war with several rebel Iban (Sea Dayak) tribes in neighbouring Sarawak, nominally under Brunei control. The rebellion was crushed with Brooke’s aid, and as a reward for his services the title of raja of Sarawak was conferred upon him in 1841, confirmed in perpetuity by the sultan of Brunei in 1846. For the next 17 years Brooke and a handful of English assistants made expeditions into the interior of Sarawak, partially suppressed the prevalence of headhunting, and established a secure government. He was knighted in 1848. Returning to England in 1863, he left the government of Sarawak in the hands of a nephew, who, on the death of Sir James in 1868, succeeded him.

Sarawak Coins One Cent 1892 Charles Brooke Rajah

Sarawak Coins One Cent 1892 Charles Brooke Rajah

Rajah Charles Johnson Brooke 1 cent central hole coin 1892

Obverse: Head of Charles J. Brooke facing left above central hole; below hole, crossed flags; around, C. BROOKE RAJAH.
Lettering: C. BROOKE RAJAH.

Reverse: Laurel wreath and above central hole, ONE; below hole, CENT; above wreath, SARAWAK; below wreath Year; mint mark, H, above date.
Lettering: SARAWAK ONE CENT 1892.

Denomination: 1 Cent.
Issued By: Charles Johnson Brooke, Sarawak.
Years: 1892 H, 1893 H, 1894 H, 1896 H, 1897 H.
Material: Copper.
Weight: 9.25 g.
Diameter: 29.4 mm.
Thickness: 1.9 mm.
Shape: Round with a central hole.
Coin Edge: Plain.
Mint: Smith & Wright, Birmingham, England; H-Heaton Mint.

During Rajah Charles Johnson Brooke’s rule, the State of Sarawak was placed under British protection in 1888 and the governor or the Straits Settlements was appointed Agent of Sarawak. As a protectorate of Britain, Sarawak gained a parliamentary government. Investment in state infrastructure included a railway and the development of natural resources after oil was discovered.
  In 1889, responsibility for ordering the coins was transferred to the British North Borneo Company in London and henceforward the coins were impressed with the H mint mark of the Heaton Mint. Thus the cent dated 1889 exists in two versions, with or without the H mint mark which appears on the reverse, below the ribbon of the wreath. Some 3,210,000 cents were struck that year, equally divided between those with and without the mint mark. All of the cents issued in 1890 had the mint mark, but in 1891 only about two-thirds of the mintage (1,623,888 in all) bore the letter H, while the others were unmarked.

Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak
Sir Charles Anthony Johnson Brooke (born June 3, 1829, Berrow, Somerset, England — died May 17, 1917, Cirencester, Gloucestershire), who adopted the surname Brooke, became the second raja. The government of Charles Brooke has been described as a benevolent autocracy. Charles himself had spent much of his life among the Iban people of Sarawak, knew their language, and respected their beliefs and customs. He made extensive use of down-river Malay chiefs as administrators, and encouraged selective immigration of Chinese agriculturalists, while the dominant indigenous group, the Ibans, were employed in military service. In general, social and economic changes were limited in impact, shielding the inhabitants from both the benefits and the hardships of Western-style development. He was knighted in 1888. The second raja was succeeded upon his death by his eldest son, Charles.