The Philippine Barter Rings

Part I    Piloncitos

This is Part II of our Philippine Money series, and Part I is linked above. 

We have started talking about Philippine money and within that list, one of the probably, oldest system of them all is, The Barter Rings.

According to the Central Bank of the Philippines, the trade among the early Filipinos and with traders from the neighboring islands was conducted through barter. The inconvenience of barter later led to the use of some objects as medium of exchange. Gold, which was plentiful in many parts of the islands, invariably found its way into these objects that included the Piloncitos, small bead-like gold bits considered by the local numismatists as the earliest coin of the ancient Filipinos, and gold barter rings.

During the early times of the Galleon Trade or the infamous "Kalakalang Galyon", the earliest Filipinos traded with gold ring-like ingots, very similar to the first coins invented in the Kingdom of Lydia in present day Turkey. These barter rings are bigger than a doughnut in size and are made of nearly pure gold. Barter rings were circulated in the Philippines up to 16th century.

According to an article posted online from the Central Bank of the Philippines site, as soon as man discovered metal, it was used to made utensils and weapons previously made of stone. 

 

For its advantages, as the possibility of treasuring, divisibility, easy of transportation and beauty, metal became the main standard of value. It was exchanged under different forms. At the beginning, metal was used in its natural state, and later under the form of ingots and, still, transformed into objects, from rings to bracelets.

During that Era, the Metal, has became another commodity money.

The metal so traded required weight assessment and assaying of its purity at each transaction. Later, metal money gained definite form and weight, receiving a mark indicating its value, indicating also the person responsible for its issue. This measure made transactions faster, as it saved the trouble of weighing it and enabled prompt identification of the quantity of metal offered for trade.

Metal items came to be very valued commodities.

As its production required, in addition to knowledge of melting, knowing where the metal could be found in nature, the task was not at the reach of everyone.

The increased value of these objects led to its use as money and the circulation as money of small-scale replicas of metal objects.

As of this writing, 3rd quarter of the year 2020, one Barter Ring is being auctioned from a legit online bidding site with the following caption:

PHILIPPINES. Gold Barter Ring, ND (ca. 960-1279). VERY FINE.

12.0 mm; 0.29 gms. Lagarda-pg. 10; Opitz-pg. 282. Used in many forms of trade including bride's dowry. Labeled by consignor as having been excavated in the province of Cebu.

Estimate: $100.00- $150.00 or Php 5,000.00 - Php 7,500.00

Yeah, I wish I could find one on my lifetime ;-)

Cheerio!