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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE. BY R. C. TEMPLE.
PREFACE.
[JUNE, 1897.
I HAVE kept by me for years the notes from which the articles on "Currency and Coinage among the Burmese" have been compiled in the hope of being able to complete them for publication; but I have found, as so many others have found before me, that advancement in the public service involves an ever-increasing official demand upon one's time, and I fear it is hopeless for me to even utilise the contents of the library I have specially purchased for the purpose of gathering together all the available information on the subject. But as my notes contain much that is, so far as I am able to ascertain, new to students and therefore worth publishing, I have determined to print the articles resulting from them for what they may be worth, incomplete as they are.
My notes cover the following points, which I propose now to take up in separate chapters. I will first discuss currency amongst the peasantry, including that of chipped bullion, with its effects on the people and their methods of valuation. These will be followed by some remarks on the age of bullion currency in Burma, on the terms used for "coin," and on barter and exchange. In the Second Chapter I propose to remark on the bullion weights of the Far East, and in the Third to describe what I have called "lump currency," i. e., the use of the metals in mere lumps silver, gold, lead, tin, and spelter, and stamped lumps and irregular tokens. This will lead in the Fourth Chapter to a consideration of the coin of the realm introduced by Kings Bodòp'aya, Mindôn, and Thibò, with remarks on the Mandalay Mint and the effigies on the coins. In the Fifth. Chapter, I will discuss "coin" as distinguished from "coin of the realm," a very interesting point in Burma, as it involves a study of the tokens and spelter money used by the people, and of the carious taungbanni currency of Upper Burma. And, lastly, I will discuss in the Sixth Chapter the not unimportant points for numismatists of forgeries, "pagoda medals," jettons, and charms.
CHAPTER I. DISSERTATION. 1.
Preliminary Remarks.1
I found, soon after my arrival in Upper Burma in 1887, that great interest attached to the coinage and currency of the country, as no coinage, properly so called, had existed before 1861, I was therefore living among a people of considerable civilisation, who had but recently been introduced to the use of coins, who must consequently be familiar with methods of barter in bullion and of trade without coinage, and amongst whom must be many relics of pre-coinage days. My official duties were many and engrossing, and I had very little leisure to devote to coin collecting, or to the study of local customs; but I was so fortunate as to gather specimens of currency sufficient in number and complete enough to illustrate what may be called the whole evolution of coinage. These are now in the British Museum, to the authorities of which I am indebted for the careful production of the fine plates
1 Three letters published in the Academy for 1890, pp. 3221., 345 ff., 426 f., give a preliminary account of the subject now discussed.
2 See Yule, Ava, pp. 258, 844; Crawfurd, Ara, p. 433; Symes, Ava, p. 826; Sangermano, p. 166; Prinsep, Useful Tables, p. 30; Toung Pao, Vol. II. p. 41; Phayre, Int. Num. Or. Vol. III. Pt. I. p. 1; Hunter, Pegu, p. 85; Alexander, Travels, p. 21. Malcom, Travels, Vol. II. p. 74, writing in 1835, notices that coin was only beginning to be generally introduced into Tenasserim. See also Vol. II. p. 269 ff. "At Rangoon the Madras rupee circulates generally for a tickal; and along the rivers up to Prome, it is known, and will be received. But at the Capital and throughout the interior it is weighed, and deemed inferior silver. In Arracan and the Tenasserim Provinces, pice and pie now circulate as in Bengal, and money is scarcely ever weighed."
