Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 91

Aratt, 1931 ] ON CERTAIN SPECIMENS OF FORMER CURRENCY IN BURMA
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if not further, in the chinthe or lion weight, which in one form is obviously a mere variety of the heatha weight, as may be seen from the same plate, fig. 1, and from the figure on p. 123 of 1.A., vol. XLII.
In Plate III, fig. 8, of Obsolete T'in Currency, just above the Cambodian coin, is to be found a cook fully developed in a modern Malay duit ayam (cock doit) or copper cash. Its rude forerunner is seen in fig. 6 of the plate attached and also in fig. 5 of Plate V of Obsolete Tin Currency. It is thus described in that work (I.A., XLII, 124); "Tin cock coin, or perhaps counter, token or tally, from Mergui. Reverse has a badly inscribed Burmese legend, which reads: thathanadan (in the year of) religion ; date illegible. This is probably the tin ooin recorded by Sangermano (Burmese Empire, ed. Tandy, 1833, p. 187) as current between 1781 and 1808: “In Tavai and Mergui pieces of tin with the impression of a cock, which is the Burmese arms [properly however the hontha, or goose), are used for money." Taking the ratio of tin to silver as 10:1, the value of this coin would be 5 oents of Malay money. "The Malay tin coin mentioned by Pyrard de Laval in 1602 was worth half a bastardo of Albuquerque, or 10 cents. That mentioned by Tavernier in 1678 was worth one cent in India." They quite probably referred to the same coin.
The reference to the bastardo of Albuquerque is here interesting. According to Gray, who edited Pyrard de Laval's Voyage for the Hakluyt Society, p. 235, the Malay tin money had existed in the Maldives before the days of the Portuguese, and under the names of calaim and calin (kalang, tin) the coins were worth 100 cash, or half of Albuquerque's bastardo (Obsolete Tin Currency, (1.A., XLII, 109). Denys, Dict. of British Malaya, 8.0. money, states that Castanheda, vol. II, says: “As there was no money in Malacca, except that of the Moors Malays), the Governor General (Albuquerque) ordered (1510) some to be coined, not only that he might extinguish the Moorish coins [tin money), but also in order that a coin might be struck with the stamp and arms of his royal master. Also, taking on this subject the opinion of the Gentile Chins (Klings, Hindus from the Coromandel Coast of India and other honorable men, dwellers in the city (of Malacca), he commanded forth with that a tin coinage should be struck. Of the one small coin called caixas (cash] he ordered two to be made into one, to which he gave the name dinheiro. He struck another eoin, which he named soldo, consisting of 10 dinheiro, and a third, which he called the bastardo, consisting of 10 soldo." He also made both a gold and silver dollar of 5 bastardo, called respeotively catholice and malaque.
From this statement it oan be deduced firstly that Albuquerque's dollar was a milrei of 1000 reis and that the caixa or cash (the Portuguese peen) was one reis. We can further construct a table, which shows the relationship of the modern dollar and its parts to the Portuguese coinage in the Malay Peninsula, which, in its turn, was based on the coinage in. vented by the Chinese to suit their commercial dealings with the Malays. Thus
Albuquerque's Portuguese Coinage. 2 caixa (cash) make 1 dinheiro 10 dinheiro
1 soldo 10 soldo
1 bastardo
S 5 bastardo
1 malaque (silver) 2 .
1 catholioo (gold) 1,000 cash to the dollar Tborefore :
Cash Cents of the British dollar. caiss
1/10 dinheiro
1/5 soldo
20 bastardo
20 malaque
1,000
200
ing