Indian Antiquary Vol 57

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 18

12
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
JANUARY, 1928
of them. These Caxias are a kind of Mony worse allay than Lead, of which they string 200 together, and call it Una Sauta de Caxias, or Caxas."
In vol. XLII, 1913, ante, I went deeply into the obsolete tin currency and money of the Federated Malay States. This currency was obviously reflected in Tenasserim and even in Upper Burma, for in Miscellaneous Papers relating lo Indo-China, 1886, vol. I, p. 253, occurs the following statement: "The pieces of ingots of tin in the shape of the frustrum of a cone, which are manufactured at the Rehgnon mines, on the Pak Chum river to the southward, and exchanged there for goods at 4 annas each, weigh 1 lb. 2 oz. 383 grains; and their value at Mergui, where the average price of tin is 85 rupees per 100 viss, of 365 lbs, is 4 annas 4 pie."
C. Oyster-shell Money (Silver). In noting the various alleged standards of silver, ante, vols. XXVI, p. 160: XLVIII. P. 53 f., it was stated that the specimens of asekke or oyster-shell money, i.e., 25 per cent. alloyed silver, given in Plate I, fig. 11, has small marks on it, apparently to show fineness.17 The following extract from McLeod's and Richardson's Journals during the Mission from Moulmein to the Frontiers of China in 1826 clears up this point and shows that some of the “Oyster-shell Money" was at any rate deliberately stamped. “The rupee is current here [at Zimme) as well as the Siamose tical (the round coin), but the money most in circulation is coarse silver of about 80 per cent, alloy, I believe, melted into a ciroular form, in which a hollow is formed by blowing when hot; the bottom of this cup is so fine that it is apt to break : when this occurs, or when it is cut, the value is much deteriorated. It bears a small mark or stamp made by the court officers (by whom it is issued) on the edge. Of this description there are two sorts of equal alloy, but one twice the size of the other. One hundred ticals are given for 45 Madras rupees, but these are only equal to 75 Burmese ticals, (as) they use the same weights and measures as the Burmans, but deteriorated one-fourth, or 25 per cent."
The above statement is evidence that the Burmese asêkké silver is really Shân stamped lump currency, which is strengthened by the remarks of Bock, writing in 1884. In his Temples and Elephants, p. 159, he tells us that the marginal marks above noted had reference to the State of issue : thus, an elephant for Lakón, a horse for Chengmai (Zimme).18 On p. 361 he has a note well worth following up. He calls “the old Lao silver coins " namtok, and says they were worth about 6 shillings each. Sarat Chandra Das, JASB., Proc., 1887, p. 150. gays that the symbols were merely Buddhist marks, swastika, fish, chaityas, and so on.
The value of certifying and stamping lump currency to show quality will be seen from the following quotation from Hamilton, East Indies, 1744, (vol. II, p. 304) “The Japonese are strict Observers of Moral Rules, and particularly in Commerce, insomuch that a Merchant of Reputation in his Payments puts up 5, 10 or any decimal number of Cupangs. which is a broad, oblong, thin Piece of Gold (of 20 Shillings Value there) into a Silk Bag, and putting his Seal on the Bag, passes current for what the Seal mentions for several Generations, without so much as once looking what is in the Bag. And Gold is so plentiful and cheap that a Cupang of twenty Shillings in Japon passes current at Batavia for thirty-two Shillings and when the Lion is stamped on it by the Company it passes for forty Shillings Sterl."
The knowledge of the value of stamping was widely spread in the Far East. Witness Bock (Temples and Elephants, 1884, p. 399) in a paragraph which makes the numismatist's
17 I have found among my notes the vernacular names of some of the figures in plate I: I record them now. Fig. 1 is in Burmese ngwelon; in Talaing, anabom. Fig. 2 is B. ngwekiegal, T. adnakong. Fig. 6 is B. yweint, T. anathaf. Fig. 12 is ngroemd, T. &nbo. In Talaing the following Figs. are named as under :-3 is also called a nakony : 7, 8 and 9 are called sàn : 10 is Okuyu : 11 is sónkwak (B kwet): 13 is also aan. All this shows that many of the people are hazy as to differentiating the standards. I have a note also that Fig. 16, Plate II, is called in Burmese t'ayúbaton and in Talaing aankanauk (silver-shell).
18 The symbols on the specimens given in Plate I, No. 11 are unfortunately not sufficiently discernible to enable one to say what they represent.