Sarawak Coins One Cent 1892 Charles Brooke Rajah
Rajah Charles Johnson Brooke 1 cent central hole coin 1892
Obverse: Head of Charles J. Brooke facing left above central hole; below hole, crossed flags; around, C. BROOKE RAJAH.
Lettering: C. BROOKE RAJAH.
Reverse: Laurel wreath and above central hole, ONE; below hole, CENT; above wreath, SARAWAK; below wreath Year; mint mark, H, above date.
Lettering: SARAWAK ONE CENT 1892.
Denomination: 1 Cent.
Issued By: Charles Johnson Brooke, Sarawak.
Years: 1892 H, 1893 H, 1894 H, 1896 H, 1897 H.
Material: Copper.
Weight: 9.25 g.
Diameter: 29.4 mm.
Thickness: 1.9 mm.
Shape: Round with a central hole.
Coin Edge: Plain.
Mint: Smith & Wright, Birmingham, England; H-Heaton Mint.
During Rajah Charles Johnson Brooke’s rule, the State of Sarawak was placed under British protection in 1888 and the governor or the Straits Settlements was appointed Agent of Sarawak. As a protectorate of Britain, Sarawak gained a parliamentary government. Investment in state infrastructure included a railway and the development of natural resources after oil was discovered.
In 1889, responsibility for ordering the coins was transferred to the British North Borneo Company in London and henceforward the coins were impressed with the H mint mark of the Heaton Mint. Thus the cent dated 1889 exists in two versions, with or without the H mint mark which appears on the reverse, below the ribbon of the wreath. Some 3,210,000 cents were struck that year, equally divided between those with and without the mint mark. All of the cents issued in 1890 had the mint mark, but in 1891 only about two-thirds of the mintage (1,623,888 in all) bore the letter H, while the others were unmarked.
Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak
Sir Charles Anthony Johnson Brooke (born June 3, 1829, Berrow, Somerset, England — died May 17, 1917, Cirencester, Gloucestershire), who adopted the surname Brooke, became the second raja. The government of Charles Brooke has been described as a benevolent autocracy. Charles himself had spent much of his life among the Iban people of Sarawak, knew their language, and respected their beliefs and customs. He made extensive use of down-river Malay chiefs as administrators, and encouraged selective immigration of Chinese agriculturalists, while the dominant indigenous group, the Ibans, were employed in military service. In general, social and economic changes were limited in impact, shielding the inhabitants from both the benefits and the hardships of Western-style development. He was knighted in 1888. The second raja was succeeded upon his death by his eldest son, Charles.