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990
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ May, 1928
NOTES ON CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
By Sir RICHARD C. TEMPLE, Br.
(Continued from page 45.)
D-III. Coins of Thibo (Thibaw). It used to be confi:fently asserted that Thibaw never had a coinage in his own name, but I have so far loubted the truth of this statement as to think it possible that he coined, or his officials coined for him, the shwe-ngamuzi, already described under Mindôn Min, as it bears date the year of his accession B.E. 1240=1878, and his sign the tô:.
Concurrently with this gold coin, which tradition has assigned to Mindôn Min, there was a copper and a brass coinage, bearing the to: effigy and the date 1240. I think this should be attributed to Thibaw, unless it can be proved to be Mindôn's.
A copper coin of Thibaw is shown in fig. 35, Plate II. Obverse: a tó: and tô: tazéktò (royal stamp of the to:). Reverse: a wreath, outside it Yedandbón Nebyídò, and inside it 1 mú tông :
linga : 8 pôn tabón (coin to be used as an eighth part of 1 mů, A.D. 1878). The eighth of a mit is the fourth of a pè.
The brass coinage of Thibaw 49 is very interesting. I had two specimens, evidently struck from the dies used for the to: copper coins just described. The Burmese imported their copper in sheets for coining, and being unable to roll copper, which requires costly machinery capable of enduring great heat, they mixed zinc with the waste copper resulting from punching the shcets for minting, and then rolled it. The brass coinage resulting was forced into currency. Specimens used to be common showing zinc alloy in various quantities.
The copper coinage, both of Mindôn and Thibaw showed early signs of becoming rare, because of withdrawal from currency by the British Government in 1899. The effect of the withdrawal in Mandalay, as I saw for myself, was to drive them out of use in a week, though of course in the villages they were likely to pass for many a year later.
A general remark by Sir George Scott (Shwe Yoe, The Burman, 1882, vol. II, pp. 299-300) on Burniese coinage and its use in everyday life, will not be out of place here :"Formerly the Burmese bad no stamped coinage, and the silver and gold used, mixed in
Teater or less amount with alloy, which necessitated the calling in of an assayer for every transaction, was always dealt out by weight. Now, however, there are gold coins stamped with the lion and the peacock, silver and copper with the royal peacock, and lead with the harc ... Mandalay rupees, though the sanie size as those of the Indian Government, are not in favour in Rangoon. They only run to fourteen annas, so that you lose two annas on cach. The gold coins are practically not in circulation at all. Englishmeni buy thern as curiosities in the bazaar and get cheated if they do not carefully ring every one. The snaller ones, struck from the same die as the silver two-anna bit, are principally used .by the king to fill silver cups presented to distinguished visitors."
E. Coin. Going back now to consider coins and tokens stamped to mark exchange value only, which form the links between lump currency and coin of the realm, it may be as well in this division of the subject to keep our minds clear as to the difference between tokens, coin and coin of the realm.
Section 230 of the Indian Penal Corle, (Indian) Act XLV of 1860, is of much use in this respect, when read with Section 3 of the Melal Tokens Act (Indian) Act I of 1889. The Indian Penal Code, when speaking of offences relating to coin and government stampe, says, Sec. 230 :"Coin is metal used for the time being as money, and stamped and issued by the authority of some State or Sovereign Power in order to be used. Coin stamped and issued by the authority of the Queen (Victoria), or by the authority of the Government of India, or of the Government of any Presidency, or of any Government in the Queen's Dominions, is the Queen's coin.
49 There is a brass coinago (sapèques en laiton) current in the Upper Laos States. Toung Pao, vol. I, p. 51.
