ORIENTAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY

ONS News

Preliminary Announcement A new Branch of the South Asia Region of the Society is being established in Islamabad for members in Pakistan. It 15 hoped that this will promote interest in oriental numismatics in Pakistan and avoid some of the problems of acquiring foreign currency for payment of subscriptions etc. The Branch Secretary is Mirza Shafqat Mahmood and details of the subscription and programme of meetings can be obtained from him at 2-98, E Panorama Centre, Blue Area, ISLAMABAD or by telephone on 92-51-250131.
ONS Meeting in Cologne On 14 November, an ONS meeting took place in Cologne, at the Pullman Hotel Mondial. Some 18 members attended on this occasion. Mr Rothkopf discussed some medals showing Polish Ottoman relations. Jan Lingen presented his lecture on the VOC countermarked coinage previously given at the ONS meeting in Amsterdam. After lunch Mr W. Thoma discussed a rare fals of Damascus 647/648 AH attributed to Turanshah IV. A pleasant get-together. with the usual discussions among the members present, concluded the meeting. The next meeting in Cologne is scheduled for Saturday 13 Nov. 1993. Regular visitors to the meetings in Cologne will in due course receive an invitation. Others may contact Mr Nikolaus Ganske (130).
The next ONS meeting in London will take place on 20 March 1993 13.30-16.00 at the Coin & Medal Department of the British Museum. The afternoon’s events will include a short talk by Ken Wiggins on coins issued during the Indian uprising of 1857. An autumn meeting has been scheduled for 25 September 1993 at the same location.
From the Editor With this issue, I have exhausted my present supply of articles. Would members please let me have fresh articles on any aspect of oriental numismatics at the earliest opportunity.

Members News… have been appointed Fellows of the American Numismatic Society. The 183 Fellows constitute the main controlling committee of the ANS and cover all aspects of numismatics. The new total of 13 Fellows who are also members of the ONS is a welcome recognition of the importance of oriental numismatics to the ANS.

Other News 1. A meeting of the Numismatic Section of the Society for South Asian Studies took place on 21 November 1992 at the Department of Coins & Medals, British Museum. The following four papers were given:

Chandrika Jayasinghe (Department of Archaeology, Colombo): Sri Lankan numismatics since Codrington. Richard Fynes: Money and religious patronage in the time of the western Kshatrapas and the Satavahanas. Paula Turner: Western Kshatrapas: numismatic and archaeological perspectives. Joe Cribb: Chronology of the Western Kshatrapas and Satavahanas, some old and new ideas. The next meeting of the Section will take place on 22 May 1993 at the same venue 11.00-16.30. This will be a study day on

Indian coins. For further information please contact Joe Cribb at the British Museum (tel: 071 323 8585).

Helen Wang will give a talk at the Royal Numismatic Society on 19 January 1993 entitled ‘Coins of the Chinese secret societies since the time of the Taiping rebellion.’ (Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London WC1C OHS, 17.30).
Dr Raven will give a talk at the Royal Numismatic Society on 18 May 1993 entitled “Recent research on the coinage of the Gupta kings of India.’ (details as above)
PJ Preston-Morley will give a talk at the British Numismatic Society on 25 May 1993 on the East India Portcullis Money of 1600. (Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London WC1, 18.00).

New and Recent Publications

The following books have been or are about to be published as part of the Southeast Asia programme of Cornell University: - Money, Markets, and Trade in early Southeast Asia: the Development of Indigenous Monetary Systems to AD 1400 by Robert - Wicks.

Fields from the Sea: Chinese Junk Trade with Siam during the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries by Jennifer Cushman For further details, please contact Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University, East Hill Plaza, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.

The following publications are available from the Indian Books Centre, 40/5 Shakti Nagar, Delhi-110 007, India:
Studies in South Indian Coins: Vol. 11, 1992 by A.V. Narasimha Murthy (IRs 200; US$ 13.33).

Coins and Currency System in Vijayanagara Empire, 1991, by the same author (IRs 125; US$ 8.33).

Bibliography of Indian Numismatics, part II, Medieval and Modern Periods, 1971-1980. 1991 by P P Kulkarni (IRs 125; $US$ 8.33).$; iv. Bibliography of Indian Numismatics, part I, Ancient Period, 1971-1980. 1989 by S. J. Mangalam (IRs 100; US$ 6.67).
Early South-East Asian Currency Systems by M B Mitchiner and A M Pollard. Published 1990 by the Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples, Italy. 100 pages, 10 plates.
The July and September 1992 Newsletters of the Indian Coin Society, Nagpur, have been received. These include the following items:

‘A Fanam of Hosur Mint’ by V. M. Kalpande ii. ‘Dalpatinagar: the Mint for Datia’ by Pravin Kumar Jain ii. ‘A Rare Vemka Silver Coin: Rudravarman’ by Devendra Handa iv. ‘A Treasure from Elephanta’ by Dilip Rajgor and Ravindra Lad - ‘The Half-Hon of Shivaji: a Mistaken Identity’ by S. U. Bhandare.

The November 1992 issue of Spink’s Numismatic Circular contains the following articles: - ‘An Indo-Greek Hoard from Akhnoor’ by R. C. Senior ii. ‘The Numismatics of the Yemen, 10th-16th century’ (part 6) concluded, by S. Lachman.

Lists Received - Scott Semans (P.O. Box 22849, Seattle, WA 98122, USA), List B57 of Numismatic Books. This list provides details and comments on a large number of books, old and new, on oriental numismatics.

Historia Numismatica III, Ancient & Islamic Coins Fixed Price List from N. Economopoulos and W B Warden, Jr. (for Bill Warden’s address, see the heading of this Newsletter)
Jean Elsen (Tervurenlaan 65, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium), list 149, December 1992. Contains a section on oriental coins. iv. Lloyd Bennett (P.O. Box 2, Monmouth, Gwent, NP5 3YE, UK) a short list of interesting Chinese coins. - Stephen Album (P.O. Box 386, Santa Rosa, Calif. 95407, USA) list no. 92, December 1992. This list contains the following unpublished/ unlisted coins:

a Murabitid: Yusuf b. Tashufin, 1087-1106 AD, AV dinar (4.09g), Sabta 483. First reported dinar of this ruler struck at Sabta and earliest known Murabitid coin of this mint. Anonymous AV bezant (3.47g) in imitation of a dinar of Al-Hafiz (1131-49 AD), “Misr” “515” (sic!) Sultans of Bengal: Ghiyas-ud-din Mahmud Shah, 1532-8 AD, AV tanka (10.59g), no mint, year 933. Assam: Gaurinatha Simha, 1780-96 AD, AV round mohur (10.72g), SE 1705. Mughal: Jahangir, 1605-18 AD, AR rupee (11.42g), Ahmednagar with Lagab “Burhan-ud-din”, onan eS

Auction News The Spink-Taisei auction in Singapore on 16 and 17 February 1993 will offer a large selection of oriental coins including material from Tibet, Nepal and Netherlands East Indies. Jean Elsen’s Auction 28 on 20 February 1993 includes a number of oriental coins.

Xusro II or Xusro IV? R C Senior

I recently examined a hoard consisting of late Xusro 11 drachms dated almost entirely in the late 20s and succeeding years of his reign and of the later rulers Ardeshir III, Kobad II, Xusro.IV and V, Hormizd V and Yezdgird III. There were several ‘funnies’ amongst the usual coins, probably relating to the period of civil war after Xusro’s death. One of these coins is illustrated above on the left. The coins of Xusro V are distinguished by their beardless portraits but those assigned to Xusro IV are harder to distinguish since they have normal Xusro II obverses of the later period and yet bear regnal dates such as year 2. Some people think that these coins are in fact mules of Xusro obverses and Hormizd V reverses rather than the issues of separate rulers. The coin illustrated is unusual because the reverse die carries the year 2 but is an early Xusro II die where the attendants wear bonnets. There were very few early coins in the hoard, they were all worn and they all bore early portraits of Xusro II as you would expect. The coin on the right is a coin of year 3 of the same mint (YZ) as the hoard coin and shows the early portrait type of small dies, thin tall head and long chin. The portrait on the hoard coin is one that one usually associates with later, mainly post-year 11 coins (when the attendants lose their bonnets on the reverse). This mint is not known for Xusro IV until now and 1 assume that in the hiatus caused by the civil war the mintmaster used two existing dies instead of cutting new ones. It cannot have been a regular issue of Xusro II of year 2 because this portrait had not evolved there at this time and it would not fit the other hoard evidence.

Two New Mints in the Ottoman Empire Omer Diler The Ottoman Empire has 132 recognised and published mints as well as 15 dubious ones. It is very natural, then, to come up with completely new mint names when the empire is so large and monetary issue so abundant. Hence the following two new mints: the first

is a Bakshahr akge of Muhammad 111, a sultan who issued the most varied akge types of the Empire. Bakshahr is 37°40’ N, 31°43’ E in Anatolia, an important town of the time, minting coins during Seljuk, Ilkhanid and Beylik reigns. J

Centre: Muhammad ‘azza n(asrahu) Margin: - Murad duriba (khan sultan) Bakshabr 12mm, 0.30 gr.

The second new mint is Sa’da in North Yemen, 17°00’ N, 43°45’ E, represented by an akge of 1027, in the name of ‘Uthman II. Sa’da minted coins from the third century AH. A fals was offered for sale in the Spink Taisei Ziirich Auction 37, on 16th Sept. 1991, no.

142, and was attributed to Sulayman I. There is also a plaster cast of a copper coin of the same mint in the ANS collection in the name of Muhammad IV, reported by Garo Kirkman.

Centre: ‘Uthman (‘azza nasrahu) Margin: sultan (b. duriba Ahman khan) Sa’da 12 mm, 0.30 gr.

When examined very carefully, the last letter( 5 ) of FS zo can just be seen.

A Coin Hoard of Ujjain Wilfried H Pieper Following Ashoka’s death in 232 BC, the huge Mauryan empire which, for the first time in India’s history, had ruled the whole Indian subcontinent, began to break into fragments. Finally only a small remainder of the empire was left with its nucleus in the central Indian region of Malwa with the important cities of Ujjain, Eran and Vidisa. The formal masters of this region at this time were the Sungas, the successors of the Mauryas, whose rule ended when the Satavahanas, a mighty South Indian dynasty, brought Malwa under

their control about 75 BC. So we can assume that the Ujjain coinage was struck sometime during this period of ca. 200 BC until ca. 75 BC. The coins are manifold with a very characteristic style, much different from the uniform Sunga coinage. Consequently one could consider, as for example R. Sethi has done (Journal of the Academy of Indian Numismatics and Sigillography, Vol. V1, 1988) whether Ujjain not only had coins of its own, but also an independent government - perhaps under the Gardhbilla dynasty, known from literary sources, which is said to have ruled Ujjain for ca. 150 years from about 213 BC. This would conveniently fill the space until the Satavahana conquest.

The coins of Ujjain are die-struck copper coins with a combination of symbols, animals and human figures on the obverse and

the characteristic so-called Ujjain-symbol, a cross with four circles at the ends, on the reverse. Only in some rare cases do we have another reverse symbol. In 1936 Allan catalogued the British Museum coins of Ujjain in his Coins of Ancient India, and Mitchiner in

1976 in volume 9 of his Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian Coinage as well as in his Oriental Coins - the Ancient and Classical World, published in 1978.

In 1990 I acquired a well preserved hoard of 50 Ujjain coins. About its intactness and provenance nothing can be said with certainty. The presentation of this hoard might be of general interest, the more so as many of the coins are hitherto unpublished. I found it useful to order the coins into different groups according to the occurrence of the most prominent symbol, even if there are a few cases where a coin could be included in one group as well as in another. The line drawings represent the coins in their original shapes and sizes. The reference works are Mitchiner or Allan; those coins with no catalogue number are unpublished - at least by these two authors. I have numbered the 50 coins from 1 to 50, arranging them in 10 different groups as follows:

I Human figure (1-14) $(1=M1200, 2=M1200, 4=M1201, 12=M1202, 14=M1209)$

121160 tree (15-24) $(18=Allan XXXVII,2, 19=Allan XXXVII,2, 20=M1197, 22=sim.M954, 24=M1197)$

Elephant (25-30) $(25=M1191, 29=M1215b)$ Bull (1-34) $(31=M1212, 32=M1212, 34=sim.M1203)$ V Frog (35-37) $(35=M1195, 36=M1195, 37=M1195)$ Tortoise (38-39)

Lion (40) VII Swastika (41-44) $(41=M1192, 44=M534)$ IX 6-armed symbol (45-48) X 4-nandipada-symbol (49-50)

3.32 3.0g 4.1g 4.72 2.0g 3.1g 0.82 1.42 4.22

Conclusion There is one item of the rare Ujjain ‘Elephant/Hand’ coinage in the hoard (25), on which the legend unfortunately is not preserved. All

the other 49 coins are uninscribed. Besides a number of nice Ujjain-symbol varieties there also occur some of those items with a frog or a swastika as reverse types. Of special interest are the coins of group IX and X bearing a prominent six-armed symbol or a fournandipada symbol. The nandipada, representing the footstep of Nandi, who is Shiva’s holy bull, is an Indian symbol of great antiquity. The 4-nandipada symbol however is rare. In this quadruple form one coin is illustrated by Mitchiner as type 1193, the British Museum catalogue has another variety listed under Eran. A few other coins with a 4-nandipada symbol are known from Ayodhya and Kausambi. All the hoard coins of group IX and X however seem to be unpublished. Number 46 is very unusual insofar as

the six-armed symbol occurs in an incuse form. Unfortunately the incuse symbol on the other side of this coin is hardly decipherable.

Coin 22 until now has been catalogued as a Yaudheya issue (M954); its style and occurrence in this hoard would, however, rather

suggest that it belongs to the Ujjain series. The same applies to coin 44, until now listed as a Taxila coin (M534). An argument against this idea would be the reverses which in both cases are definitely blank and this at least would be very unusual for an Ujjain coin (in all other cases where the line drawings show a free reverse it cannot be said with certainty if the reverse is blank or worm).

Among the animal series special attention is drawn to the tortoise coins and the lion type. A lion to the left is known for Ujjain from a few British Museum specimens (M1216). Hoard coin 40, however, showing a lion resting to the right, is unpublished. The same applies to the tortoise coins which I presented in Newsletter 134.

The coins best represented in the hoard are those with a standing Karttikeya and those with a prominent tree in railing. Of both

groups there occur several nice varieties with many of them new and unpublished. Number 14 15 a beautiful representation of the seated goddess Lakshmi. a. As for the metal, all coins are made of copper with the exception of 45, which is a lead coin. As shown above there are a lot of new types and varieties of Ujjain coins in this hoard and I hope the line drawings will give enough further information to the interested reader. Certainly there are still a great number of other unknown types in other collections and only further publication can provide a better knowledge of this prolific coinage.

Two Rare Mughal Mints R C Senior

Sironj Apart from an extremely rare copper of Akbar, the only known silver rupees of this mint are post-Farrukhsiyar (1124-31 AH). Published here is a ‘square areas’ rupee of Shah Jahan bearing the date 1065, regnal year 31. This is a new mint for this emperor. Sironj was a city situated on the main route from the Deccan to Agra. mint name

Baramati Baramati is a town in the Poona district which has an old fortress. Very few coins are known and the earliest was the coin published in the Nagpur Museum catalogue, pl. VII, 389. That coin was not dated but here is a second specimen in very good condition showing the date 1124, regnal year 1. This makes it the earliest known coin of this extremely rare mint. game yl ate, Coin of a New Mughal Mint Devendra Handa

‘An unidentified rupee of Shah ‘Alam II’ belonging to the British Museum collection was published in the ONS NL, No. 117, MarchApril 1989,.م‎ 7. It bears Shah ‘Alam’s Hami Din couplet and the date 1198 on the obverse and (regnal) year 26, a distinct anchor mint-mark and a beautifully engraved legend on a decorated field on the reverse: ¥ oy /

Unfortunately, not all of the name of the mint at the top is visible. The editor has observed that “I do not recall seeing the mint-mark أ‎

on any other Indian coin. There is also a small ‘Shri’ to the left of the mint-name. One suggestion for the latter is Chhachrauli

in the Ambala district of the Panjab, and known as a mint-place for copper coins dated AH 1215 and 1216. The anchor mint-mark suggests that the coin was minted somewhere with a significant maritime or river trade. Chhachrauli is not too far from the river Yamuna but probably not near enough to justify such a mint-mark.” At the end, he poses to his readers the questions: “Has anyone seen a similar coin, or any coin bearing the same mint-mark? And can anyone identify the mint?”

Though the editor has suggested the mint-name to be Chhachrauli he himself seems to be quite sceptical about it. There is no doubt that this mint-name occurs on some copper coins of Shah ‘Alam II! but no silver rupee of this or any other ruler is known from Chhachrauli. Another point worth consideration is that the mint-mark on the silver and copper coins of a ruler issued from a particular mint should be the same, but the anchor mint-mark differs from the mint-mark of Chhachrauli as found on the copper coins of Shah

‘Alam II. Moreover there is no space for accommodating فى‎ of the mint-name as the visible part _4** - of the legend is immediately followed by what looks like a small cross-mark and partially accommodated ‘Shri’. The existence of 9 is also very doubtful. To us, therefore, the visible portion ae with its top falling off the flan seems to represent the name of the mint and

one nuqta each under the truncated top letter and the following letter provides the clue for reading it as Jhajjar.

Jhajjar (28°36’ N, 76°40’ E) is the headquarters of the tahsil of the same name in district Rohtak (Haryana), nearly 35 km south of Rohtak and 55 km west of Delhi. Jhajjar is an old town said to have been destroyed by Mohammad Ghori and refounded by a Jat clan.? A reference to this place is found in the Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi.? It existed in the time of Firuz Shah Tughlaq who had a canal dug from the Satluj to Jhajjar.* It was a pargana during the time of Akbar.> Its proximity to Delhi may have led further to its growth which is indicated by a large number of Moghul monuments in and around the present town. Notes and References

H. Nelson Wright, Coins Of The Mughal Emperors Of India, London 1908 (Reprint, Delhi 1975), p.299, Nos. 2490-91, pl. XXII (2490). 2. Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. XIV, Oxford 1908, pp.107-08.
H. M. Elliot and J. Dawson, The History of India as told by its own Historians, vol. IV, p.8. 4. Rohtak District Gazetteer, Chandigarh 1970, p.328.
Elliot and Dawson, op. cit., vol. V, p.264.

Editor’s note: Devendra Handa’s reading of the mint-name as Jhajjar seems to me very plausible. It is interesting to note that the coin bears the same date (1198) as the enigmatic rupees of Panipat, though the latter have regnal year 25 and their style is much inferior. One wonders whether the year 1198 indicates some connection between these two issues or whether it is merely coincidence. More on the gold coins of Sudarshan Shah In Newsletter 134 we published an article by N G Rhodes on the gold coins of Sudarshan Shah of Tehri Garhwal. Part of the reverse

legend was unread. Ken Wiggins has proposed the reading “Parwan tilli meera panah” - “prosper under my protection”. A New Copper Coin of Jammu Ken Wiggins

AE Weight: 7.12 grams. Jy a r= Diameter: 19 mm.

1م‎ 7 1

Da re

NX Tae

The above coin appears to be an unpublished copper of Jammu. It does not figure in Valentine or in any other publication that I have perused. Very little of the inscriptions appear on both sides but fortunately I found that Jan Lingen had a similar coin, with the same reverse die (fig. 1, below). With this assistance it was possible to arrive (with some reservations) at the above inscriptions and a date of Samvat 190X.

It would appear that these coins were the first copper issue of Gulab Singh (1846-56) when he ceased to govern Jammu as a feudatory chief of the Sikhs in Samvat 1903-04 (AD 1846) and became a ruler in his own right. It is apparent that these coins followed

the design of the Sikh copper coinage of Amritsar (see Valentine pp.129-31) with, of course, different inscriptions.

Gulab Singh, whilst a feudatory of the Sikhs, issued few copper coins of his own (see Valentine p. 253, nos. 3 & 4 which may be his own issue). His later coins had a Persian legend on one side and Sri Ragunathji Saha in Dogra-Takani or rather strange Gurmukhi on the other (see fig. 2).

Ref. W. H. Valentine, The Copper Coins of India. Part II, The Panjab and Contiguous Native States. Spink & Son Ltd., London, 1914.

An Enigmatic Jaintia Coin Nick Rhodes & Vasant Chowdhury

Obv: Hara Gauri Cha/ rana Paraya/ na Kamala Ma/ dhu Karasya Rev: Sri Rupesya/ Banadasthan/ Jantapuramka/ Saupradhana Wt. 9.6.ع‎ Diam. 27 mm. N G Rhodes colln.

The coin illustrated above turned up recently among a group of rupees of the Kachar kings, Nirbhaya Narayan (1559-66), Megha Narayan (1566-83) and Yaso Narayan (1583-1601). Although from the same collection, there is no firm evidence that they came from

the same hoard. However as the coins are found so rarely, there must be a strong possibility that they were found together and if so I have heard rumours from a source in Bangladesh that a hoard containing Kachari coins of this period was found at Durgapur in North Mymensingh District in the mid or early 1980s. Certainly the style and fabric of this piece is so similar to that of the Kachari coins

that it is very likely that they were issued about the same time, in the second half of the sixteenth century.

The obverse inscription is a very normal invocation to Siva, but the reverse calls for some comment, as no similar legend occurs on any other North-East Indian coin. It can be tentatively translated as “(coin) of the most beautiful (presumably referring to Siva), chief (or foremost) ruler (of) the forest land and the Jaintia inhabitants”.? The coin is therefore struck in the name of God, rather than in the name of a king, and is also unusual in having no date.

In order to explain the unusual legend on this coin, it is worth looking at Jaintia history during the middle of the sixteenth century. According to the chronicles, Jayanti Devi (known as Rani Singha) was Queen of Jaintiapur and was married to Lantabar, the royal priest, but the couple had no children. After some time, Lantabar was exiled and married Matyodari, who gave birth to a son, Bar Gosain. From early childhood, Bar Gosain proved to be a brave fighter, and after a military success over neighbouring Muslims, he made an unsuccessful attempt to conquer Jaintiapur. Rani Singha, who was seeking an heir, and hearing that the young man was the son of her former husband, decided to adopt him as a “nephew” and make him her heir.* In due course, on Rani Singha’s death, Bar Gosain succeeded to the throne. The date of Bar Gosain’s accession was placed by Gait in the year 1548 AD, but he admitted that this was a very tentative date, arrived at by assigning sixteen years to each reign, and extrapolating back from the reign of Dhan Manik, who is known, from Kachari sources, to have died around 1605. That led him to conclude that Bar Gosain was probably on the throne when the Cooch Behar army under Silarai attacked Jaintiapur, and, as it was stated in the Cooch chronicles that the Jaintia king was killed in battle at that time, most probably in 1564 AD, he placed Bar Gosain’s death in that year, and his accession sixteen years earlier. That logic, although not unreasonable based on the available evidence at the time, breaks down when one looks at the coin struck in the name of Bar Gosain’s successor, Vijaya Manik, and dated 1497 Saka (1575 AD).° This year can probably be regarded as Vijaya Manik’s accession year, and hence Bar Gosain probably died, or otherwise ceased to be king, in 1575 AD. Hence, if we assume that a ruler of Jaintia died during Silarai’s invasion, which took place late in 1563 AD (although it is not confirmed in the Jaintia chronicles), Bar Gosain probably succeeded to the throne in or around 1564 AD. During his reign, Bar Gosain built a temple to Lord Siva near Muktapur, next to a natural cave with stalactites and stalagmites. The head priest of the king was Rupanath, and this temple became famous as the temple of Rupanath. It contained the image of Siva as Rupanath, and his consort as Jainteswari.© Bar Gosain dedicated his whole kingdom to Rupanath and Jainteswari, and donated no specific land for the maintenance of the temple, since the dedication meant that the whole country should provide.

This enigmatic coin fits well with this account, as it is clearly dedicated to the Lord Siva, and cites Rupa (Siva, the most beautiful) as the chief or foremost ruler of the country, as might be appropriate if the whole kingdom had been dedicated to the God. Furthermore, the issue of coins by the temple, in the name of the God, might be appropniate if it had none of the normal income in kind provided by specially donated land.

It is also interesting to note that the Cooch Behar chronicle states that when they defeated the king of Jaintia in 1563 AD, one of the conditions imposed was that, in future, he should not strike coins in his own name. This coin would be in accordance with that condition.

Accordingly, we attribute this coin to the reign of Bar Gosain, and suggest that it was struck at the time of the building of the temple of Rupanath, within about five years of 1570 AD. Notes

Information from Mr Dave Cashin. 2. Our thanks to Dr B N Mukherjee and Sri S K Bose for their help in reading the legend. 3. N N Acharyya, The History of Medieval Assam, 1984 لع‎ pp.228-9. 4. E A Gait, A History of Assam, Calcutta 1963, p.313. 5. Cf. V Chowdhury & P Ray, ‘Hitherto Unknown Coin of the Jayantia Kingdom’, in Staddanjali, Studies in Ancient Indian History (D C Sarkar Commemoration Volume), New Delhi 1988, pp.252-3. 6. R M Nath, The Background of Assamese Culture, Gauhati 1978, p.102, and my thanks to Sri S K Bose for providing further details from A C Choudhury, Srihatyer Itibritta, Part 2, vol. IV, ch. 2 pp.6-7.

A Double Brockage Forgery from Nepal N G Rhodes double brockage normal coin

All numismatists will be familiar with brockages, where a coin gets stuck on the lower die after striking, so that the next coin 15 struck with a normal impression of the upper die, and an incuse impression of the same design, from the previous coin. The piece illustrated above appears to be a double brockage, in that it has an incuse impression on both sides!

These 5 Paisa coins of King Tribhuvan of type KM.600.1 were very crudely struck at an unidentified mint in the Nepalese hills, perhaps Tansen in the Palpa District, or Dhankuta in eastern Nepal, and this piece did not immediately stand out as unusual, as the incuse design is easy to miss. The weight, 10.4 g, is slightly light for the type, with most pieces weighing in the range 11-14 g; however the range is such that a weight this light is not unlikely.

The question is, can this piece be a genuine mint production? In my collection I happen to have a genuine coin dated 1985 VS (AD1928), struck with the same obverse die as the piece that made the incuse impression, but the reverse die is different. However, brockages of this issue are rare, and it is not possible for fully struck earlier coins to stick to both the upper and lower dies causing such an error - even if it was possible, one of them would logically have to be a brockage itself. The only explanation is that this must

be a forgery, struck by someone who could make a flan of the correct shape, but as he did not want the trouble of making new dies, he merely used two genuine coins to act as dies, and produced a coin that could easily deceive!

£4

aA

The Chinese-Siamese Pee Coins, used as currency © Hollink a

P’ai - Pa risa Be or Pai - Pa A *

Introduction The kingdom of Siam was called “muang Thai’, or the country of the free people. But the Thais surely were not the only inhabitants of this country. In Siam et les Siamois (Paris 1889) Abbé Similien Chévillard tells us that, at around 1880, Siam was inhabited by 2,000,000 Thais, 1,000,000 Chinese, 1,000,000 Malays, 1,000,000 Laotians, 500,000 Cambodians and some 100,000 people belonging to the Pégouan, Karieng, Xang and Lava tribes.

We might assume that where the different cultures of these people met, there also were wrong interpretations and misunderstandings, caused by the different languages. I will stick to the latter: those occurring on the porcelain pee coins; at first only used in the gambling houses, and gradually becoming T’ung - Pao, i 5 ذا‎ = or generally accepted currency.

Monetary system: The old Siamese monetary system knew the Tical or Baht, divided into 4 Salung, equal to 8 Fuang = 16 Songpei = 32 Pai = 64 Att =

128 Solot. The Chinese hong-owners, who issued the pee coins, ordering them at the Chinese porcelain kilns in Tehua (Fukien), Pangkoy and Gowpi (Kanton), gave these denominations Chinese names, sounding like the original value names, if possible. These Chinese names had no relevant meaning, being just used phonetically. We thus find:

Ch’ ien: Ex cS, 4, (Money) for Salung; Fang:: (fragrant) for Fuang; Sung - P’ai: for Songpei; P’ai (to distribute) for Pai. We do not find names for the Att and Solot; just the figures for the values, in cowries, they represented:

Att

B (100) $r=] 2$ (100 Pa, cowries); Solot: Et (50).

Generally speaking, there are few difficulties in identifying the Salung-, Fuang-, and Songpei-pieces. It is the Pai that gives is problems when we try to identify certain pee coins. This is probably because there is a value, used for the Att coins, equivalent to 100 cowries or Pai - Pa ( r=] ‘arte that may sound similar in Chinese dialects.

The “Pai’’ coins The Siamese “Pai” was equal to 1/32 of a Tical, or 200 Pa (cowries). These coins can be recognised according to the value inscription on their reverses:

1 dix. 2. AAC 3 1A G

$4 [=X$ 5 in Siamese script: (8 1: This character is the Chinese character “P’ai”, for ‘to distribute’, but just used phonetically for the Siamese value “Pai”;

2: These three Chinese characters (official script) say: 200 Pa (cowries);

3: 200 Pa, in commercial Chinese script; 4: Three characters in commercial Chinese script saying 1.25 Fén, or (in Siamese) 1.25 Hun; which is equal to 1/4 Fuang or “Pai”: 5: The Siamese figure ©? for “2” is adapted to the round shape of the coins;\9 means 200 (pa), hence: “Pai”.

The following have also tended to be identified as “Pai” coins:

» ٠ 6. م ير‎ 7. AB 8.

This identification, regarding nos. 6 and 7, however, does not satisfy me; it is more likely to be a name consisting of two different values put together:

P’ai = the Chinese name for the Siamese “Pai”; and Pa = the Chinese for “cowrie”’, another monetary unit. To combine the two together seems to me to be rather superfluous.. We will not find combmations of “Pa” with Ch’ien or Fang; and P’ ai-Pi, as m Ch’ien-Pi or Fang-Pi (Ex ptt, 5 A Fk: ) for the name “Pee” of the token is out of the question. For “Pi” different characters are used, with no other meaning to the subject than their name: “Pee”; while “Pa” is just used for the monetary unit “cowrie”’.

The only possible explanation to me is that this is an example of the above-mentioned misunderstandings caused by different cultures and languages, or dialects.

We might assume that the pronunciations may have varied in different languages, and that the kiln, getting an order to produce coins with a strange value, chose and used the wrong character. Hence vfi¢ PAshould be 5 م‎, like the reverse of figure 11, in the series of the Ts’ ai-pees:

9 29 6 10 Ck) @) 11 69

The aberrant way for P’ai in figure 8, however, could have been used for Pei or Pee (Pi). As has been said, different characters were used for this (foreign) notional word. The matching Fuang to this Salung bears the same combination with Chin-P’ai on the obverse. “Chin” might as well mean “gold” as “precious”; hence the translation of the obverse script: Ch’ien (Fang) - Chin = P’ai, would be: “Salung (Fuang), precious pee (coin)”, which makes sense.

P’ai - Pa, or Pai - Pa? Trying to identify the series, we will find that some Hongs or firms issued coins with values following sequentially: Salung, Fuang, Songpei; others issued series, leaving out the interjacent values, like: Salung, Songpei, Att. Although I have to admit that I had not had access to all the series that have been issued, the idea gradually grew stronger that my assumption, that the P’ai - Pa Um FR should

mean Pai - Pa 5 ie, or Att, instead of the Siamese value “Pai” was correct. This is particularly because of the strange combination of the two values, which does not make sense; and the fact that the character P’ai, used in this combination, often is not written correctly: obscure or corrupt!

Some examples: - According to the “usual” explanation, both the coins shown in the figures 12 and 13 are “Pai” coins.

I have found that in series of matching coins, different sizes or shapes mean different values. Since fig. 12 says: I - P’ai for 1 “Pai”, the smaller coin of fig. 13 cannot but be the next denomination, which is the Att. Again, the character P’ai is not written correctly (although that goes for no. 12 too!) Thus I think that P’ai - Pa on no. 13 should be Pai - Pa r=] م‎ or Att.

A group of 3 pairs of pee coins that do not have, in my opinion, values following sequentially.

Fig. 14 & 15: Obverse: Cornucopia; Fig. 14: Reverse: Sung - P’ai; Fig. 15: Reverse: P’ai - Pa. \ 4

y og: Fig. 16 & 17: Obverse: Kuang-Yén-Ch’éng; Fig. 16: Reverse: Sung - P’ai; Fig. 17: Reverse: P’ai - Pa.

Fig. 18 & 19: Obverse: Male head; Fig. 18: Reverse: Sung - P’ai; Fig. 19: Reverse: P’ai - Pa.

The P’ai - Pa issues should be 1 Att too, according to the analogy of the set of 3 matching pee coins issued by the company Chii-Hsing Kung-Ssii:

Fig. 20: The first, the Ch’ien or Salung bears the full name of the company in 4 incuse characters on the obverse: Chii - Hsing Kung Ssi; Fig. 21: The second, a Sung-P’ai or Songpei, equal to 1/4 of a Salung, only bears the character Chii on the obverse; Fig. 22: The third pee has the character Hsing on the obverse, which means that all the characters from the company’s name have been

used, and no combination has been left out. Regarding the sizes, and in addition to the relation between nos. 20 and 21, the third pee should be a quarter of the value of the second pee, which makes it a 1/4 Songpei or Att.

I used this example and extrapolated it to the above shown coins (fig. 14 - 19). It is not a 100% proof, as I have only seen about 25% of the total, possible issues.

A pee coin that has always bothered me, is the very common pee with Hsing/ Erh - P’ai (fig. 23).

ص حلت | جد 23

The “usual” explanation for the value on the reverse says: Erh - P’ai, or 2 “Pai”, which would make a Songpei. Among the ca. 2,200 different pees I have examined and recorded, this would be the only Songpei written this way! Should a Songpei be meant, it is at least

a very unusual way of writing this value. The character P’ai itself has not been written correctly. According to the thesis developed above, I wonder whether this could also be a corrupt inscription for 2 Pai: Were this assumption correct, the Erh-P’ai should be Erh-Pai, or 200 cowries, hence a “Pai”. The matching Hsing/ I - P’ai of figure 24

would then be the 100 Pa, or Att. Comparing the characters and the sizes of the tokens concerned, this explanation makes more sense to me than having a unique way

for writing “Songpei”. And besides, the corrupt part strengthens the thesis of my article, that corrupt characters do indicate different values!

Conclusion The incorrect, or “corrupt” characters P’ai, used for the value inscriptions on the tokens, indicate different values. P’ai - Pa sik قم‎ should mean Pai - Pa 5 5

The fact that often corrupt characters appear on the tokens might be due to the fact that these characters were just used phonetically, to lay a bridge between the different cultures and languages in one country. Despite all the good intentions, misunderstandings and wrong conclusions were inevitable. Tokens (depicted) ex collections:

British Museum: 18, 19 Borg: 6, 7, 12, 13 Hollink:8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23, 24 Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde (description by G. Schlegel): 14 Terry: 22

Short Bibliography Gustave Schlegel, Siamesische und chinesisch-siamesische Miinzen, Internationales Archiv fiir Ethnographie, Leiden - 1889. Carl Kainz, ‘Ostasiatische Porzellanmiinzen’, Berliner Miinzblatter, Nos. 177-180, Berlin - 1895.

P. Hofrichter, Siamesische Token, Hamburg - 1977.

Abbé S. Chévillard, Siam et les Siamois, Paris - 1889.

Late News We regret to announce the death of Dr Craig Alden Burns on 30 October 1992 at the age of 72. Dr Burns was ONS U.S. Regional Secretary from January 1981 to December 1984. It is hoped to include an obituary in a future Newsletter.