2016-03-21 Mon

Owning an island is everyone’s dream, which very few can actually realize. That’s exactly what a Scottish sea captain John Clunies-Ross and his descendants did! They lived on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, claiming it for more than 15 decades, before handing it over to Australia in 1978. During these 150 years they issued some coins which are offered for sale by A.H. Baldwin & Sons in Hong Kong on April 7.

The island which lies between Australia and Sri Lanka, is named after the East India Company’s Capt. William Keeling, who discovered it in 1609. Clunies-Ross came to the islands in 1827 for trade using Home Island and West Island as places to store spices for the British trade. Though the business idea was unsuccessful, others succeeded and Clunies-Ross with his people remained.

The island became a British colony in 1856 and was attached to the colony of Ceylon in 1878. Four years after the administrative control was passed to the Straits Settlements, Queen Victoria granted the islands to the Clunies-Ross family in 1886. The colony became part of Singapore in 1903 until November 1955, when it was placed under Australian control. Clunies-Ross descendants owned the islands until 1978, when John Cecil Clunies-Ross sold the islands to Australia.

The Baldwin auction features a set of seven 1913 token coins, ranging from 5 cents to 5 rupees (100 cents equals 1 rupee). Others are 10-, 25- and 50-cent pieces and 1- and 2-rupee pieces.

The shape of these coins differ as per denominations, including round, square, octagonal and ovoid, in a manmade imitation ivory called “plastic ivory”. Each of the 1913 coins is serial numbered. All of the pieces are graded Extremely Fine, and the set has an estimate of $2,000 to $2,500.