Early Indonesian Coins

Found an interesting article from Indonesian Heritage book:

"Gold coins of 9th and early 10th century Java are stamped with the character ta in nagari script on the obverse, an abbreviation of tahil, probably signifying that the coins were legal tender for tax payments. The same character remained on coins until the Kadiri period in the 12th century.

Silver coins in central Java are quite different from the gold coins from the same period: in shape, renge of denominations, and manner of treatment. The gold coins were made in the shape of cubes, carefully crafted and very uniform in size and gold content. The silver coins are round and are called 'sandalwood flower' coins, after the four-petallled flower motif found on the reverse. They lasted from the early 9th to the 14th century. The same flower appears on one side of older silver ingots from central Java; the other side is stamped with a flowing vase design, which is never found on coins. The obverse of the sandalwood flower coins bears the nagiri script character ma, (abb, masa). This character degenerated quickly, perhaps because it is different from the kawi letter ma. The shape of the coin, its weight, and possibly its siver content all changed rapidly in about a century. The one masa coin shifted in the early 10th century from thick and flat to cup-shaped, and thin (about two milimeters). These coins presumably served as small change and were probably made by smoths in the markets for use in market transactions."