Kajoemaas Seal, Image & Found by Chrisyeadon.
Found on the Thames foreshore, 21mm.
"It has KAJOEMAAS with an eight pointed star at the centre with M but not sure about the smaller letter beneath.
It looks like it had two wires going through it."
From Paul Cannon, "This seal, as you say, is very clearly marked ‘KAJOEMAAS’. For evidence that this is a place name in the Dutch East Indies see The International Institute of Social History. Dr Francine Brinkgreve of the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, Netherlands has confirmed that it is the old spelling of Kayumas or Cayumas and is a place in both Central and East Java. Java was (and is) famous for its coffee production. See Wikipedia, “the coffee is primarily grown on large estates built by the Dutch in the 18th century. The five largest are Blawan, Jampit, Pancoer, Kayumas and Tugosari, covering in all more than 4,000 hectares”. It therefore seems quite possible that this object was a coffee seal. The initials in the centre probably relate to the actual producer/owner of the estate.
