Do you like coins with elephants on them? Do you know what an Erawan is? Erawan is a Siamese (formerly Siam, now Thailand) mythological three-headed elephant which is supposed to bring wealth and power to its owner. In order to bestow riches upon the populace King Rama VI had his minter create a silver 1/4 Baht (1 Salung) coin with the King's bust on the obverse and the Erawan on the reverse so all in the kingdom could own an Erawan. Rama VI was driven to complete his father's (Rama V) modernization reforms by founding the first university in Thailand, making education compulsory, establishing Scouting, and having Thai's adopt family surnames. Before this requirement, Thais only had first names. Rama VI even helped individual families invent last names. Now that I've told you about the coin, the ruler and the superstition here's that coin courtesy of Don's World Coin Gallery: http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/coine.php?image=img16/175-43&desc=Thailand%20y43%201%20Salung%20(1915)%20=%201/4%20Baht%20.80%20silver&query=Thailand%20y%2043 Hope you found this trivia interesting... Clinker
that is fascinating Clinker! not a bad coin design either lol Do you know when the modernization plans were undertaken? The coin shows a date of 1915, so was it aorund that time?
To Daggarjon: Good Day to you! The Salung (1/4 Baht) coins were priduced from 1915 (you see it was a first coin) through 1925. It appears, to me, those were Rama VI's years of modernization. The Kingdom of Thailand under rule of Rama VIII began in 1939. I think the modernization under Rama V began in 1910 one year after Siam ceded its soveriegn rights over the independencies of Kedah, Kelantan, Perdis and Tregganu to Great Britain... Clinker
