Journal of the Siam Society; 37

Table of contents :
JSS_037_1a_Front
JSS_037_1b_Guehler_OldSiameseCoins
JSS_037_1c_PrinceDhani_ShadowPlayAsPossibleOriginOfMaskedPlay
JSS_037_1d_Embree_KickballAndOtherParallelsBetweenSiamAndMicronesia
JSS_037_1e_Feroci_AestheticsOfBuddhistSculpture
JSS_037_1f_Notes
JSS_037_1g_Reviews
JSS_037_1h_AnnualReport
JSS_037_2a_Front
JSS_037_2b_WilliamsHunt_IntroductionToArchaeologyFromTheAir
JSS_037_2c_PrinceDhaniNivat_KingMongkutAutographLetterToPiusIX
JSS_037_2d_Guehler_SymbolsAndMarksOfOldSiameseCoins
JSS_037_2e_Pendleton_DoiPulankaAndMiaosNewYear
JSS_037_2f_Guehler_LetterByRobertSchomburgk1860
JSS_037_2g_Reviews
JSS_037_2h_ListOfMembers
JSS_037_2i_AnnualReport
JSS_037_2j_ObituaryWCredner

Citation preview

VOL. XXXVII, PT. 1

October 1948

THE

J

URNAL OF

51

THE

M

CIETY (.J ss)

BANGKOK 2491

NOTES ON OLD SIAMESE COINS

(A dmwription of some rat'c coins of the National Museum in Bangkok and other old coins recently discovered.) by

Ulrich Gnehler

The number of old Siamese coins, still existing in public

and private collections in

Siam

und :;till available in

Bangkok

silver-shops today, is exceedingly small and rapidly decreasing. \Vithin the few years since I wrote my first. and second article ( "Ftll'thet• t\tndie::; of Old 'l'hai

Coins", ,JSS Vol. XXXV/2 and

"Solllf\ Investigations on the Evolution of the Pt·e-Brmglwk Coinage", ,ISS XXXVI/1) it has become mot·o and more di!Iicnlt to discover

any additional old coins not yet detwriiJe!l hy le May in his book "'L'he Coinage of Siam" or in nne of my articles. And not only that! Coins of the Ayuthia period. which were fairly common a fpw years ago, have beconw scarce, awl it seems that gradually the geeate1· part of' the silver and gold bullet-coins still left, have disappeared in the melting pots of local si 1ve1· dealers and :jewellers. Pricc8 for silver aml gold at·e still high enough to induce the trade to melt clown such "nseless" things as old coins :Eor which nobody seems to care, all the more, as the silver

quality and even contains traces of gold.

0'(

old coins is of excellent

Considering all the havoc

and destruction which t.he second world war bas wrought, and remembering the unrecoverable losses of cultural values sustained by so many countries in Europe and Asia, it may appear like making ''much ado about nothing," iE one laments about the disappearance of old coins,

But from my point of view-and I hope

that some people will share it-it is deplorable that those old coins which are witnen evacuated during the war, is on display again. By permission of Uw Curator, Luang Boribal, I was enabled to inspect that r:nlluetion, to makt\ notes of the various coins and to weigh and to de~:Jerilw thorn Mr. J.J. Boeles was kind enough to make some photographs. 'J'his publication therefore contains an additional liat of those llllllot-coins of Snkothai and Ayuthia periods which have not yet lH~eiJ der.wribed before by either le May or me. 'rheroby this li:;t., for the time being, will conclude the records of old Siamese coins kuown to me, with the exception of the lesser values of bullet-coins of the pt·e-Bangkok periods. There is a great number of such small coins exhibited at the National Mnseum. Many of them have not yet been describeu. It, will, however, take a long time to make a com plcte snrvey of them, and I preferred to publish the larger coins first with a few smaller ones in addition, partly with the idea that this publication would otherwise by necessity become too lllng, and partly, since I was afraid that it would make still more dry reading to most members than it is aheady now.

NOTES ON OLD SIAMESE COINS

3

'l'ht• Sl!hjt't•.t of old t'"in:-; may aetually i:ii1.jr;ame like le May Block 37 Reverse - ~hell in an elaborate (See Block 4) ·. ~esi~n To JJ- 8; dot~ ii,round a. cet'lt·re dot in circles like le May Block 28 TVeight - 34 grm

10

ULRICH GUEllLER Ends meet, me gn11 1

A rnllllll d to deal with cnstonlH connected. with birth, childhofJd and c. 'The present w01·k is the fifth anfl last of the series. As is usual with this author, the style of tho hook is a 1nixtnrc

of scientific study, a \Vide 1·ange of cmnparisons and hnrrw1·ons touches. In such a 1nanner it 1 ), hy His Majesty King Chulalongkorn, 208 pages 1948.

In 1879 King Ohnlalongkorn wrote a poet,ical rornance which he adapted from an English translation of Gall{1i1.d' s l?rench version of the Arabian N iohts. l-Ie chose one of the latter stories of that collection and coined fo'r it the Sanskrit nama. of Nidr(t,jarrrU, i. e. 4

awakened sleep'. He wrote· it in a variety of poetry called a lilit, conaisting of three kinds of klong verses and ·a sort of rhythlnic

rai.

RECENT SIAl\H~SE PUBLICATIONS pro~l'.

67

tl'ht· l'lll!lata·t~ wa:-~ puldi:-iht·d fot· tlw first. time in the

follow

Y1' ht·•·u adoptt~d a~ a da~sic: to lw read in the higlwt· furm:-: nf :-;••t·nlldary :-=.dtou l~. ln ihmm·ing tht• prt. •Hvnt ~··lltitlll 1 lidii'Ved t.o }J(~ the fifth or l)ixth, fur }lrc~~:wutatiun 011 Ow oc·ea~ioH u.l' the (~re1nation of Her

l~xt~d h•1wy C'ha.o Uhom ~InJHb LHen iu l\larch HHK, theil' Exce1len~ ciul::i Chao Phya allnce B?:dyalonglcorn ( 'W'a~

83.

"'\ Ampz.ificaUon. Air photogeaphs can he nsetl. to amplify topogl'aphical information on maps by locating former islands and beach lines and potential archaeological sites, given a key site.

Antlwo JJOlogy. In certain cases it may be possible to trace modern cnltnre groups of aboriginal peoples. So much for the theory and suggested practice of m·cluteological air photography in Siam. It now remains to illustrate and describe such typical sites as space permits.

Pcwt 2:

llluslnttions

The following pages of plates and explanatory notes illustrate the techniques and practice of aerial photography of archaeological sites as described in the preceding text. 'rhese plate were prepared by the author from original aerial pboto~raphs taken by the Bl'itish Hoya.l Air :B"'orce, the British Royal Navy, Eagle Air Photos Ltd., and by the \Vri ter.

too

ARCHAEOLOGY FROM THE Atll

Plate 1. (a and b) Vertical and ObUque Air Photog'J·aphs. Angkor W at, French Indo-China.. Lat. 13 2C>' N., Long. 103 51' E. A contrast botween vert.ieal and oblique air photographs. rrlw Note vertical photograph (a) gives a plan view of the structul.'e. ho-vv tho variouH heights of buildings are in