There was a man selling old coins at a street corner in Jakarta
I was heading south on Hayam Wuruk in Jakarta, a large street named after a former king. The sidewalks were of the type that dug into buildings that are often seen in the Southern countries. The sidewalk, which shades the sun, is a good place for street vendors to do business.
The place I was passing by was just such a place. A number of people were setting up shop with their wares on a shaded street. I don't know why, but the only people who had shops in the area were painters and secondhand dealers. The person in the photo was the latter, selling old coins and bills on the street.
It was interesting to see that among the bills and coins from the Dutch colonial period, there were Japanese military yen issued by the former Japanese army in the former Dutch East Indies.
Since 1800, when all of the East Indies except Portuguese East Timor became Dutch East Indies, and almost the entire territory of present-day Indonesia came under the direct rule of the Dutch government, Indonesia has consistently been a Dutch colony, although there was a period of Japanese rule from 1942 to 1945 at the end of World War II. And it was during that period that the Japanese military issued the Japanese military yen.
It is not known how that Japanese military yen went through the post-war period. But there must have been a fair amount of Japanese military yen issued. Nearly 80 years after the war, there are still enough of them on the market to line the storefronts of antique coin merchants on town corners.
| May 2020 INDONESIA PEOPLE | |
| JAKARTA MAN MONEY SIDEWALK STREET VENDOR |
Similar photos
PHOTO DATA
No
11536
Shooting Date
Jan 2020
Posted On
May 22, 2020
Modified On
September 4, 2023
Place
Jakarta, Indonesia
Genre
Street Photography
Camera
SONY ALPHA 7R II
Lens
ZEISS BATIS 2/40 CF
