148 S. C. Das — Notes on the Coinage of Siam. [Mat, 



5. On Pandyan Coins. — By the Rev. James E. Tracy, M. A., with 

 a plate and exhibit of Coins. 



6. Notes on the Coinage and Currency of Siam. — By Babu Sarat 

 Chandra Das, 0. I. E., with an exhibit of Coins. 



Previous to, and during, the reign of H. M. Somdetch Pra Nang 

 Klow, (1824 A. D.) the lowest currency of Siam consisted of a species 

 of sea-shell or cowrie called bi-ah in the Siamese language. The 

 amount of 1,500 bi-ah was usually accepted as equivalent to the 

 smallest silver coin called the fu-ang. Latterly when the shell be- 

 came scarce in the market, probably from the destruction of the species 

 from some unknown natural causes, the Government fixed the value of 

 the fu-ang at 800 bi-ah. The currency of the bi-ah is now-a-days dis- 

 couraged by Government, yet they make their appearance in the remote 

 and obscure markets of Bang-kok and in the interior of Siam. In the 

 same manner the cowrie, the primitive currency of India, still continues 

 to be the currency of modern India though it is not recognized by Go- 

 vernment. The place of the bi-ah was first taken by lead coins and then 

 by copper coins, according to the Rev. S. Smith, during the reign of 

 H. M. Somdetch Pra Charem Klow. When lead was introduced in the 

 currency, Government attached too much value to the new coins on the 

 idea that the Government seals impressed on them raised their value. 

 This encouraged counterfeits, a circumstance which forced the people 

 to refuse altogether the valueless metal, lead, as an article of currency. 

 During this reign the silver, copper and lead coins of the country con- 

 tinued to be of the peculiar bullet shape, but slightly different from what 

 prevailed during the preceding reign. Some people in Siam say that 

 during the latter part of King Chuam Klow's reign the flat silver and 

 copper pieces stamped with the sacred Buddhist symbols were tried as 

 a medium of currency. 



His Majesty the present King of Siam on the occasion of opening 

 the Bangkok Exhibition of 1882 said that His Majesty was pleased to 

 see " the large collection of very old and curious lead coins that was 

 exhibited on that auspicious day." From this it appears that lead coins 

 existed in Siam from the earliest time when the Indian islands and the 

 countries of Further India were under the sway of the Siam- Cambodian 

 monarch of Unkor who built the great monastery of Nakhon-mal — the 

 grandest of the Buddhist ruins of Asia. 



It is the general belief of the Europeans residing at Bangkok 

 that the Siamese heretofore have not known that silver mines existed 

 in their country, and it is but lately that they have learnt to work the 

 mines. The people who had commercial intercourse with the Chinese 



