TIGER
TONGUE MONEY
SIAMESE
PORCELAIN MONEY
These porcelain gaming tokens, called
Pees, were issued by Chinese owned gambling houses in Siam during the
18th and 19th centuries. There circulated as money due to a shortage of
small change. After a period of time the gambling houses would recall
the tokens and they would be declared valueless, resulting in a
substantial profit to the issuer. SIAMESE
SILVER FUANG OF KING RAMA V
King
Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Siam (Thailand) was educated by European
tutors. He was the first Thai king to travel outside his
country. He modernized the government, abolished slavery at a
time when nearly a third of Siam’s population were slaves, introduced
Western technology including railroads, and encouraged European style
clothing. He managed to keep Siam the only
independent state in the region in the face of encroaching British and
French colonialization. With his 116 Queens and concubines,
he had 77 children! In 1876 he introduced a 16mm
silver 1 Fuang featuring Rama V in a western military uniform on the
obverse. It was the first time that the portrait of a Siamese
king appeared on a coin. The reverse depicted the national
arms. The coin was minted from 1876 until 1900 without a
date. UNCIRCULATED
FIRST COIN OF THAILAND
On June 24, 1939 Siam officially
changed its name to Thailand. The first coin issued with the new name
is this bronze 1 Satang. It is similar to the previous 1
Satang coins other than the new name. The obverse has a unalom around a
center hole and the name of the country. The reverse has an
8-blade chakra around the hole and the date 2482 in the Buddhist Era
calendar, which corresponds to 1939AD It was struck
only a single year due to the start of World War II. THE MYSTEROUS DEATH OF
THE YOUNG KING
OF THAILAND
Ananda
Mahidol (Rama VIII) became the
King of Siam at age 9 in 1935 upon the abdication of his
uncle. He was attending school in Switzerland at the
time. He did not return to Siam until 1938. In 1939
he formally changed the name of the country to Siam. He again
left the country shortly before the outbreak of World War II and did
not return until December 1945, after the end of the war. On
June 9, 1946 he was found dead in his bed in the royal palace with a
bullet wound to his head. It is unclear if it was murder, suicide or an
accident as details of his death were suppressed. The obverse
of this tin 25 Satang bears the child’s-head of Ananda Mahidol, as he
would have looked when he assumed the throne in 1935. A mythical Garuda
bird, the national emblem of Thailand, is on the reverse. The
coin is dated BE2489 (1946). The coin has virtually no wear,
however it has toning or minor corrosion as is typical of tin coins.
In
June 1960 Thai King Bhumibol, Queen Sirikit and their children began a
six-month world tour that included the United States and 14 European
nations. The young king strengthened diplomatic ties and helped create
a glamourous image of the King, Queen and Thailand. Thailand
commemorated their return from the successful journey in January 1961
with its first ever circulating commemorative coin. The
29.6mm copper-nickel coin depicts the busts of the king and queen on
the obverse. Above them is a Trisula-in-Chakra which is the symbol of
their royal dynasty. Thailand’s traditional Royal coat of arms is on
the reverse.
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