Hi Jim,
Let me take a ride under your cape of 'absolutely no knowledge' and digress a bit myself ...
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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
... Eventually these became items of status beyond their obvious use as weapons, and heavily produced for use in ceremonial cases as well as even trade items... Beyond that, perhaps this one could have been for trade use among local tribes, in the sense of intertribal gift in wedding, currency etc. parlance?...
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In a manner that this gives place to a third category; besides operational and fake lantakas you have, as you well note, the ones used for other than firing ...
intentionaly made for such purpose, with no thought for fraud. As long as you
don't pretend that a determined lantaka is or was for combat, there is on step to consider before calling it a fake. At the end, there were probably more lantakas for multiple inland purposes than those aboard ships; this before junk ones were made for opportunity business. It is said that in some local wealthy people mansions, the surrounding walls were made of zillions of lantakas set upright.
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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
... It is indicated that prior to the 18th century, there were iron pins to center the clay covered wood core which produced the bore. As the mold was broken open, these pins actually became part of the cannon itself, and later these iron residues became spotted rust in the bronze...
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The so called cruzetas ... or chaplets
Here i upload two collectable valuable small examples of so called cannon money, a status achieved by non combat lantakas (and other).
One aledgely cast in Melaca in the XVIII century, in a style similar to those introduced there by the Portuguese and a triple barrel (as triple currency unit) cast in Sião during the XVII-XVIII centuries; a very rare example.
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