Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 48
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
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APRIL, 1919)
NOTES ON CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE
41
The purest recognised silver in Burma is called Shan bò, or pure silver, and is extracted from lead ore in the Shân country. It is also known, on account of its appearance, as chaubin-bauk b'o and k'ayûbåt-ngwe. There is silver known as Burmese b'ò, and the process of extraction would appear to be the same in both cases.
The appearance 3 of Shân b'o is shown by fig. 1, Plate I, a point which will be alluded to later on, while a piece of Burmese bo, which has undergone the process of chipping for currency, is shown in fig. 2, Plate I. Shân silver is said to contain six per cent. of gold, and reddish yellow spots, caused by salts of gold created in the process of extraction from the ore, are frequently to be seen on the reverse surface of Shân b'o.
Yule says, Ava, p. 260. that b'd was the currency obtaining between the Burmese and foreigners, but that the King refused it as such, owing to the greater difficulty of testing it than of testing dain, a lower quality of silver. He also says on the great authority of Col. Burney that k'ayûbat-nguce was an inferior quality to b'o, thus differing from my information.
For the high quality of Shân bò, we have an interesting reference in McLeod's Journal, where he says, “The silver current is of the best description, either the Chinese stamped square coin or bau [bo] silver, or the Burmese yuetni [ywerni J.5"
Prinsep (Useful Tables, pp. 30, 31), who saw a great deal of Burmese silver in the first quarter of the last century, agrees with Yule, and so far disagrees with me in differentiating between b'd and k'ayúbål-ngwe. He says that the k'ayribåt silver "is supposed to denote a particular fineness, which by Burmese law but [? ought] to be ten-ninths yweini in value ; i.e., 9 tikals of k'ayûbat pass for ten of ywetni silver; or it should contain 193 b'o and copper."
As to b'he makes a curious, but natural, inistake. I will give his statement verbatim. He says, “Ban signifies 'pure' or 'touch,' and is the purest obtainable by the Burmese process of refinery. This word is synonymous with banny of the Ayeen Akbery [ bânî of the Árn Akbaril: bunwary [ banuari] is the Indian name of the touch-needles used in roughly valuing the precious metals." Now the word b'o is usually spelt by writers as baw or bau and was mistaken by Prinsep in Burney's MSS. for ban. Hence all his wrong etymology and inferences. The mistaking of au for an in Burmese words containing the sound which I write ag d aw in awful) is very common in books. Some are full of such mistakes e.g., the value of Macmahon's Karens of the Golden Chersonese is entirely marred by this printer's error, and so is that of many papers on Burma and the neighbourhood printed by the House of Commons
The second quality of silver is called dain running about 89 to 93 per cent. of 69.8 It is known by the marks of striation on its upper, or obverse, surface. A specimen is shown in fig. 3, Plate I. This was the silver used, according to Yule, Ava, p. 260, for the trade with China.
3 By " appearance" is usually meant in these pages the upper, or obverse, surface of the metal. The Tower, or reverse, surface takes usually the form of the crucible or pot in which it has been melted.
• From 21% to 4% worse.
5 Bowring, howovor, says exactly the reverse, and states that in the Laos Country oval ingots of base metal circulate: Siam, Vol. II, p. 21.
• He writes the word kharoobat. " It is nally the name for "pure silver." . Yule says, Ara, p. 345, 95 per cent. of b'o.
