Indian Antiquary Vol 57

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

Page 22

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JANUARY, 1928
silver coin, which he made with a mint establishment imported from England. But he required his ticals to pass for sixty per cent. above their real worth, and the copper for nearly three times its worth. The consequence was a universal stagnation of business; and, after urging his law so far as to execute some for contumacy, he was at length obliged to let silver and lead pass by weight, according to their real worth, as before. The people are not anxious for coin. They cannot trust their rulers; they love higgling in bargains; they make a profit on their money, as well as goods, by increasing its alloy; and a numerous class of assayers, or brokers, called Pwa-zahs (pwêzá] (by foreigners, Poyzahs), subsist by melting up silver, to improve or deteriorate it as they are desired. This they do before the owner's face, and have only the crucible and scoriæ for their trouble.”
Besides the silver samples, Symes took to Calcutta some of copper. When Phayre wrote in 1882, apparently the only specimen known of these was that figured by him, op. cit., Plate V, fig. 8. Since then I found two at Mandalay, vide my Plate II, figs. 22 and 23, and my Plate V, fig. 48 and 49. One is the half of the other, and they were tendered as coin in payment of bazaar fees. Locally, they were known as coins of Shwêbê Min, probably because they were known not to be an issue of Mindôn or Thibo, and were therefore referred to their best known immediate predecessor, Thârâwadi, one of whose titles was Shwêbô Min; or possibly they were referred generally to the Shwêbô (or Alompra) Dynasty.
Writing on the information before him, Phayre, op. cit., p. 33, says that his specimen was probably & pagoda medal struck by a queen at Ava, who came from Myanaung on the Irrawaddy in Lower Burma, to be placed in a pagoda she intended to build there. This, he conjectured, because it was found at Myanaung. It is, however, clearly part of the coinage struck at Calcutta to Bôdòp'aya's order, because of the legend on it, which runs thus :Obverse, two fishes : reverse, 1143 k'u Tabôdwé labyijo 14 yet. That is, it is dated 14th of Tabôdwê waning, 1143, B.E., or February, 1781. It must have, therefore, been struck in the year of the succession of King Bodòp'aya. See Plate II, Figs. 22 and 23, and Plate V. Figs. 48 and 49, on which last the better specimens are shown. There appear to have been three denominations, and all the coins are of copper.
A Burman, in Rangoon, supposed to be an authority on old coins, told me in 1892 that Figs. 48 and 49 of Plate V were "Shan coins often worn by children as a remembrance of ancestors and that their name was in Talaing, sônka," ka meaning fish. This information is Worth noting, as showing the caution necessary when collecting evidence even from the learned. I may mention that kd is in Nicobarese, as in Talaing, both being languages of Môn origin, the term for 'fish.'
The coins of Bodop'aya, shown on Plate II, Figs. 22 and 23 and on Plate V, Figs. 48 and 49, must not be confused with those he issued in Arakan after he had taken possession of it. These are dated in A.D. 1781 after he had ascended the throne in Burma, and he did not conquer Arakan and issue the Arakanese coinage until 1787. His Arakan coins will be described later.
All that Symes had to tell us personally on the matter is very short. At p. 469 of his work on his Embassy to Ava, he tells us he received a letter from the Maywoon [Myowun or Governor) of Pegue, 'asking that a carriage might be built for the king as per plans attached, and then he goes on to say "The Maywoon's letter, however, contained a requisition of yet greater importance; that was, to obtain materials for the establishment of a mint, a design, which if carried into effect, must considerably promote the prosperity of the country, as the necessity for weighing lumps of lead and silver, and ascertaining the purity, operate as a sensible impediment to commerce."
But Cox, to whom was entrusted the duty of conveying the carriage, the specimen coins and the minting machinery, has a good deal more to tell us about the matter that is exceedingly