Ancient- The States of Pyu, Ancient Burma

Purchased for cheap.

The City States of Pyu. Ancient Burma.

I remember reading somewhere that Ancient Burma had coins! In my attempt collect at least one coin of each ancient empire, I moved eastward having recently picked up some Chinese and Indian coins, Indo-China just seemed to make sense as the next place to stop and look for ancient empires with coins. I used to think that all Far Eastern empires cast coins in the style akin to the Cash of China and that is true for Vietnam and Japan but not for Burma or Thailand.

The coin I picked up is a large full unit with a hole. Struck in the walled city of Srikshetra. The coin is the largest denomination known for the series. These coins are very rare and are often holed as they were worn as amulets, or carried about on strings. The use of coins fell out of use in the 9th century and did not resume until the 17th century.

These full unit coins are quite large and heavy and of high purity silver, uncommon in the world at the time. Judging by the weight of the coin and diameter it is assumed that the coin represented 96 Ratti (a seed of a flower in India) and is an earlier issue as the weight of 11 grams declined to about 9 grams in the 9th century. All these coins are rare.

Burma,
The States of Pyu, The City of Srikshetra
AR Full Unit s. 632-835 AD
33 mm x 10.60 g
obverse: Bhadrapitha Symbol. A Drum tied in the center with diadems.
reverse: Srivatsa symbol (the Temple of Sri, fertility goddess) with sun and moon above, conch shell on the right and thunderbolt to the left.

Note: Obverse is right image Reverse is left image.

 

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Once again you venture where I have no desire/interest to collect. However, having said that, I can still appreciate a decent ancient coin and this one looks quite nice. Congrats.

 

Its alright Bing I promise I will move back West....or maybe I will keep going East and end up with some Thai coins, proto money beads from the Pacific Islands, and some State Quarters, and then Ill be back right were I started.

 

Wow this is a new one anoob. You seem to get the most obscure coins lol. Not a culture/region I see myself collecting either but an interesting coin nonetheless. Nice pickup!

 

Ahhhhh Burma.

 

Gorgeous Modern! Interesting script!

 

Great new coin, A-Noob!!

 

Noob if you keep moving East I hope you get out to the Isle of Yap and pick up one of these big boys. I warn you though you may need to fortify your floor a bit before you bring it into the house.



Little bit too big for a flip eh?

 

I forgot to add that this Burmese coin is actually really awesome. And big too!

 

Very cool noobster, we need to start calling Ancientwizard, nice big coin and good info, keep up the great work...
Whizb4... put a rope thru that big dude hang it around your neck, talk about being holed...

 

Nice find, AN, and thanks for another numismatic history lesson.

 

Thanks guys! I wonder if Medoraman will comment on how I found out about his secret collection sphere?

 

well AN, you're putting things on my want list i didn't even know existed. that really is neat.

 

You know I spotted these coins sometime ago, when I was hunting for my Axum coin, I looked at what they were going for ($150-$350) for this denomination. I saw a small (1/4 unit-2.50grammish?) at the Bay State show, but the gentle man wanted like $150 and I passed. I got this one cheap...*whisper* off the 'bay. So when I saw the Full Unit, I was like, "duuuuurrr!!, I have to have that!" Then I said," I don't want one with a hole." Then I read a little bit, and found that it is common for the series to be holded by the populous in antiquity. That's when I said, "that's it."

 

Yep Noob only 1850's but for the time. Pretty nice.

 

Oh I will comment. This coin appears to be similar to Funan coins, which makes sense since Funan was the precursor civilization for this area of the world. Scarce coin. I have Funan and Dvaravati, but never concentrated much on Burmese except to the extent they shared coins with Thailand.

I will get you back Anoob. I have a newp to post tomorrow just for you.

 

I'll post on one thread instead of the pair...


Great Coins!

Nice explanation too

 

Btw, like many coins of this area, the fractional denominations are much more rare than the full units. Like Sassanid Persia, usually silver was the highest circulating coinage. As such, there was great need for large denominations, not nearly as much for smaller silver. I have two dvaravati fractions, (and I mean fractions, one is I believe .22 grams), and they were MUCH harder to find than the large coins.

So, its a case where even though the full unit coins are MUCH more common, they are demanded even more by people liking large coins. To me, that makes the rarer, lower priced fractions an attractive buy. I am weird though.

 

UPDATE:

Lost for a thousand years, found and then registered lost in Kearny, New Jersey? Horrible...I can't tell you how livid I am right now...

Seller will refund my money no problem, but that's not the point...

 

How awful! Might it still turn up?