________________
MAY, 1928)
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE
95
Elsewhere Crawfurd, p. 517, tells us that the punishment of death is inflicted for forging [zinc coin)
Nearly every traveller has complained of forgery and warned successors against it, but Anderson, Mandalay to Momein, 1876, p. 386, gives an interesting instance of forging sycee which raust be a difficult operation : "Elias and I arrived [at Sawadi) while the payments were being made in lumps of sycee silver, one of which was declared by a paromine (pomaing, money-changer) to be bad, and, being bitten, proved to be hollow, and filled with sand.
The crime of forgery was not always committed by Asiastics upon Europeans, and at least one instance of a dastardly attempt on the part of Europeans to cheat unsophisticated Islanders is recorded in the Voyage of Pyrard de Laval, (1888, Hak. Soc., vol. II, pt. 1, p. 159 made in the seventeenth century : “But in truth what did us much harm at the first, and took away much of the good repute of the French, English and Hollanders in this country [Maldive Islands) (for in the Indies we are all considered alike, seeing that we are all friends among ourselves and enemies of the Portuguese) was, that there was brought to Sunda, or islands of the South (Malay Archipelago), a quantity of false pieces of forty Spanish sols, which were made on board the ships. The Hollanders accused the English, and English cast the blame on the others : however, the fact was, the Hollanders paid dear for it, for tbe voyage after, a goodly number of them were killed at several places; and since then the Indians have not trusted them so much, and the rumour has spread over the whole of India that we are all cheats.”
G. Siamese Porcelain Tokens. Although a large number of these interesting tokens bave passed through my hands at times, since I presented specimens to the British Museum and other Institutions, I have not been able to ascertain much about them from literary sources. What I have unearthed I now publish, but these curious specimens of currency seem to me to be worth better exploration than has apparently been so far bestowed on them.
These porcelain tokens are really tokens issued by apparently authorised gambling houses and as they have a pecuniary value to the possessor, they are passed from hand to hand as negotiable money for their known value. Holt Hallett (4 Thousand Miles on an Elephant, 1390, p. 234) says of them :-"On our return to Penyow, 130 m. from Zimme] Jewan came to me with a long face, complaining that the people in the town had given him some pieces of pottery instead of change, and asked what he should do. On looking at them I found they were octagonal in sbape, and stamped on one side with Chinese letters. After showing them to Dr. M'Gilvary, he said they were the ordinary gambling currency of the place and represented two-anna and four-anna pieces. It appears that the gambling monopolist has the right to loat then, and they are in general use amongst the people as small change.57 They remain current as long as the Chinese monopolist is solvent or has the monopoly. If he loses it, he calls the tokens in by sending a crier round, beating a gong and informing the people that he is ready to change the tokens for money. Dr. M'Gilvary said that such tokens formed the sole small change at Zimme before the Bangkok copper currency supplanted them." i Bock (Temples and Elephants, 1884, p. 142) supports him by the following remark "In all parts of the country I found a number of porcelain coins of all shapes and sizes, bearing different Chinese characters and devices. These are issued by Chinamen holding monopolies, and are only current in their respective districts."
And this remark he follows up by another reference to them; (pp. 598-9): "Of antiquities and curiosities (at the Siamese National Exhibition, Bangkok]there was a fine collection of weapons and arms from hill-tribes scattered throughout Siam and Leo, and an equally interesting show of the ancient coins, some flat and some spherical, solid bars of silver or gold with a stamp at one end, side by side with old paper currency, lead, crockery, and porcelain tokens and cowries."
67 For an account of the games played in Siam, soe ibid., p. 238.
