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.