Very crude Chinese characters Qian Long Tong Bao // Crude Boo Chiowan in Manchu. 23.5mm, 4.08 grams. cf. Zeno 294162; Mitchiner -; Millies -.

Rare high quality example. With a casting error (parts of the central flap not completely removed).

These brass imitations of the Qing Emperor Qianlong (1735-1796) were cast in Bali in the late 18th, early 19th century, and possibly later. They are sometimes assumed to be tokens of some sorts, but they are found in hoards (sometimes quite large) alongside official Qing cash (see Zeno #229418) and were probably circulated as local currency of sorts. The early pieces were cast in brass, later pieces were cast in zinc. All Qian Long Bali cash are rare.

Before the Dutch arrival, Bali was not a single unified state, but a collection of Hindu kingdoms ruled by Balinese rajas descended culturally and politically from Majapahit. By the 17th–19th centuries, Bali was fragmented into rival kingdoms such as Gelgel, later Klungkung, Karangasem, Buleleng, Badung, Tabanan, and Mengwi. None of them issued coins - this type of Zinc cash is probably the only attributable type of coins from this period from one of the Bali Kingdoms. The Dutch first established influence in parts of Bali in the mid-1800s but did not fully subjugate the island until a series of brutal military campaigns between 1846 and 1908, including the famous puputan (ritual mass suicides) of Balinese courts.