Bullet money
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Coin_Museum_Thailand_by_Trisorn_Triboon_64.jpg/220px-Coin_Museum_Thailand_by_Trisorn_Triboon_64.jpg)
Bullet money or bullet coins, known in Thai as photduang (Thai: พดด้วง; pronounced [pʰót.dûaŋ], also spelled pod duang, etc.), were a type of coinage historically used in Siam (now Thailand) and its predecessor kingdoms. They were almost exclusively made of silver, in the form of a bar bent into a roundish shape, and stamped with certain marks. Photduang were issued according to the baht system of weights, known among Westerners as the tical, which is the basis of the modern Thai currency. Their earliest common use is from the Sukhothai Kingdom (13th–15th centuries), and they were used by Ayutthaya and its successor kingdoms Thonburi and Rattanakosin up until 27 October 1904, when their use was discontinued in favour of flat coinage.[1][2][3][4]
Gallery
[edit]- King Ramathibodi II (1491-1529 CE)
- Maha Chakkraphat (1548-1569 CE)
- Maha Thammarachathirat (1569-1590 CE)
- Naresuan (1590-1605 CE)
- Songtham (1611-1628 CE)
- Prasat Thong (1629-1656 CE)
- Narai (1656-1588 CE)
- Uthumphon (1758 CE)
- Rama I (1782-1809 CE)
- Rama II (1809-1824 CE)
- Rama III (1824-1851 CE)
- Rama IV (1851-1868 CE)
See also
[edit]- Lat money, a similar currency used in Lan Xang
- Piloncitos, used in the Philippines
References
[edit]- ^ "The Story of Pod Duang". The Coin Museum. Treasury Department. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
- ^ Le May, R. S. (1924). "The Coinage of Siam: The Coins of the Bangkok Dynasty, 1782-1924" (PDF). Journal of the Siam Society. 18 (3).
- ^ Quiggin, A. Hingston (2017) [1949]. "Primitive money". Routledge Library Editions: History of Money, Banking and Finance. Routeledge. pp. 212–219. ISBN 9781351602709.
- ^ "End of the Bullet Tical". Straits Echo. 7 November 1905. p. 4. Retrieved 2022-10-25 – via NewspaperSG.
Further reading
[edit]- Krisadaolarn, Ronachai; Milhailovs, Vasilijs (2012). Siamese Coins: From Funan to the Fifth Reign. Bangkok: River Books.