Indian Antiquary Vol 57

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

Page 21

JANUARY, 1928)
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
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mouth water. He is describing an Exhibition and remarks :-"An equally interesting show of ancient coins, some flat and some spherical, solid bars of gold and silver with a stamp at one end, side by side with old paper currency, lead, crockery and porcelain tokens, and cowries."
With reference to the use of asêkke silver as currency. In 1894 I received a very interesting letter from Mr. H. S. Guinness, writing from Wuntho in Upper Burma, formerly a Shan State, on the currency obtaining there :--"I have malc enquirics into the lump currency in Wuntho and find that oxactly the same system existed in these parts as in Mandalay before the introduction of rupeos. Gold was occasionally used and the ratio was fixed at 20 to 1, but it was not legal tender, as it was not accepted in payment of revenue. All revenue was payable in one standard of silver 25 per cent alloy [i.e., asêkke). The Sawbwa (chief] never attemptod to coin, nor did he ever stamp the lump currency with any device or mark of fineness. Gold of two varieties was known, distinguished as red and yellow. The red gold was considered the best, but there was no difference between them."19
Mr. Guinness had the plates of these Notes before him and wrote further instructively upon them: "Rice20 does not seem over to have been a standard of currency, though other articles may have been, and probably were, bartered for rice. But the agreement had to be mutual between the parties concerned. There was no fixed or standard value assigned to the basket of paddy or rice : the latter being bought and sold at the market rate (pauk zè). 21 Rice varied in price according to demand between half a tickal and 2 tickals silver per basket."
D. Coin of the Realm. Although the coin stamped to indicate weight and fineness should come before regular coin of the realm in the order of evolution, it will be more convenient to treat the Burmese specimens in the reverse order, because in Burma the former were imitations of the latter. 22
D-I. Coins of Bodòp'aya.23 The usual historical statement is that Mindôn Min was the first to introduce coinage into Burma, but his predecessor Bôdòp'aya, who flourished 1781-1819 A.D., made an attempt in that direction. Yule (Ava, p. 255) writing in 1855, gives a good general description of his proceedings : “King Mentaragyi (Bôdòp'aya] expressed to Col. Symes a desire to have minting implements, and Capt. Cox (British Envoy to Ava) accordingly carried with him the necessary apparatus. A coinage was struck and issued. The metal was pure, but there was a little drawback to the success of the scheme, in the fact that the king fixed the current value of his coins at two-thirds above their real value for the silver, and at more than 400 per cent. on their value for the copper; prohibiting all other currency, and charging the difference between the intrinsic and arbitrary value as his seignorage for coining. The usual results of such pranks followed. All trade was suspended for several weeks, till the ministers persuaded the King, not to put his coinage on a rational footing, but to give it up altogether, and since then the experiment has not been renewed."
Malcom (Travels in South Eastern Asia, vol. I, Burman Empire, 1839, p. 270), tells the story in much the same way : “ The late king, Menderagyee, attempted to introduce small
10 The red gold being alloyed with copper was in reality worse than the yellow gold, which was alloyed with silver. See ante, vol. XLVIII, p. 106. But all over Burma from the Royal family downwards the people valued most the red gold.
90 See ante, vols. XXVI, p. 281, and XXIX, pp. 33 and 38.
31 This does not quite state the argument concerning rice as a currency. It was not domestically usable rice that was used as currency, but spare broken rice, which could be used for no other purpose than currency. See ante, vol. XXVI. p. 281.
93 As a hint to collectors I would draw attention to a statement in Dan vers' Portuguese Records, p. 146 : "One of the earliest acts here (Malacca) of Affonso de Albuquerque appears to have been the issue of a Portuguese coinage, for in the same letter [April 1, 1512) he states: "Nuno Vaz takes with him samples of the gold, silver and copper coins, which have been struck in your Majesty's cause." I have further dealt with this point, ante, vol. XLII, p. 109 f.
18 I adopt here the transliteration of the previous articles on this subject, which is not the oficial form,