Indian Antiquary Vol 57

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

Page 51

MARCH, 1928)
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE
NOTES ON CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
By Sir RICHARD C. TEMPLE, BT.
(Continued from page 18.)
D-I. (a) Symbolical Coins. We now come to the vexed question of the coins which Phayre in the International Numismata Orientalia, vol. II, pt. i, p. 33 (figured on his Plate V, 2) called Pagoda Medals and considered very ancient. My own Plate III was made many years ago and I followed him thereon by also calling them “Medals from Pegu." Of the figures in my Plate30 III, figs. 2, 3 and 4 are of silver and figs. land 5 of spelter (tutenaga). Figs. 1, 2 and 3 are in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Figs. 4 and 5 were in my own collection, and are now in the British Museum. The evidence I have collected tends to show that they were really the coinage of Bôdop'aya, but they have hitherto been called Pagoda Medals or symbolical Coins of Pegu and Arakan.
Marsden, Numismata Orientalia,' p. 805, writing in 1823, states that the silver coin figured by Phayre31 is one of those from the pattern given to Symes by Bôdòp'aya. At the end of the nineteenth century they were still to be found about Burma, vide my Plate III, figs. 4 and 5, and besides those exhibited there, I saw several others at the same time. In the Calcutta Museum3Nos. 881, 882 are the identical samples that Symes brought to Calcutta at Bodòp'aya's request in order to have copies made of them at the mint. They were evidently given as 'ancient specimens, and it is well to note here that they were cast, not struck. The modern Burman is, however, an adept at both metal-casting and die-sinking.
Phayre, op. cit., p. 35, says that the silver coins were really pagoda medals, intended by the King to be placed in the great and still) unfinished pagoda he was building at Mingûn, nearly opposite the modern Mandalay across the Irrawaddy. This view is, I think, partly correct, though it is evident from the quotations below that he really did intend to use them as coin of the realm. In any case they were modelled on true pagoda medals.33
Mr. L. White King allowed me to examine his rich collection of Burmese coins, and I found he had two varieties of that shown by Phayre, Plate V, fig. 2, and also a good specimen of Plate V, fig. 1 (the same as my Plate III, fig. 3), and three smaller coins of the same design of one-fourth the size. Assuming the larger coin to be a tickal, the smaller specimens would represent a tamat each, or one-fourth tickal. All this looks like coinage, especially as those of Phayre's Plate V, fig. 2 were found in Arakan, whither Bodòp'aya sent an army.
The point is obscure, but in view of the information thus available, I think the safest thing to do, in the light of Cox's statement, given below, that there were two kinds struck, is to attribute all the coinage to Bodòp'aya. The Calcutta Mint specimens would be those given in Phayre's Plate V, fig. 2, and the others those made by Boddp'aya's own moneyers.
I may as well note that the point is rendered still more obscure by the coin or medal shown in my Plate III, fig. 5, which is evidently of the same class and belongs to the British Museum, unless it is assumed that this is one of the Pagoda medals, from one or two of many designs from which Bôdòp'aya chose specimens to hand over to Symes 34
That they were Bôdòp'aya's coins, struck perhaps in Upper Burma, is probable from the following interesting correspondence, which I give in full, as the whole subject is still somewhat obscure and all evidence is valuable. Mr. H. G. Batten, then Deputy Commissioner,
30 Fig. 6 on that Plate is from Tenagsarim and has no connection with the other figures. It will be dealt with separately.
31 International Numismata Orientalia, vol. III, pt. I, p. 33 and Plate V, 2. See also Marsden, Plato LIII.
32 These numbers refer to the old lists. They may have been changed in the new catalogues.
33 Nos. 883, 884 in the Indian Museum, Calcutta Mint Collection are probably the originals of these coins. They are noted in the catalogue, 1883, as "Rupees, Ava Mint."
34 In view of its good workmanship, it may also be Cox's 'second design.