Unusual coins series - Silver Flower Money (Pak Chee) Lanna Kingdom of Northern Thailand.

Unusual coins series.

Lanna Kingdom. Circa 13 -16th century AD. Northeast Thailand modern day Chiang Mai.

Silver Pak Chee (Flower) ingot coin. 76.6g

A scarce type of primitive ingot money used in the Kingdom of Lanna. These represent a high denomination currency and its value in silver weight and purity. Called Pak Chee or flower money due to their design on the obverse which resembled a flower or droplet of water.

 

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LOL, that is a PIG at 76 grams! Lot to carry around in your pocket! Nice flower.

 

Haha..Thanks.. yeah it is pretty solid. Considering also that they were of high grade silver, this could also have been a pretty high denomination.

 

13-16th century "AD" and that's all that they could come up with?

=> Fail

 

A very interesting piece. Is it cast? It looks like it might have simply been poured into a one-sided mold.

 

LOL!

 

Certainly unusual and unbelievably 'fat' !!!

 

The way they minted these would have been pretty simple by pouring molten silver into some shallow moulds of irregular shapes. Probably the top "flower" designs were resulting from the pouring effect or probably a simple drawing at the surface

 

You should have seen some of the smaller pig snout coins or AE changes they used. . Haha

 

On hand.. wide but thin

 

If I was selling it, I would describe it as having some minor porosity, lol.

 

True true.. although the porosity is their marks of authenticity. . Just like Chinese Sycees. .

 

http://www.thaibankmuseum.or.th/eng/museum108.php

 

Very sweet addition, Loong Siew (I love that you can take a joke about your coin)

=> I think the coin is super cool (congrats) ...

sadly, I don't have anything to add to your thread

13th century AD, eh? ... ummm, I guess I do have this example ...

Seljuqs of Rum, Kaykhusraw II



=> I'm grading this baby at the Grade-5 art level

 

Actually that's what made me think the coin was made in a one-sided cast. That doesn't look like the porosity that results from the weathering of time. It looks like a combination of bubbles and slag that occurred during the casting and cooling, and it was left as-is.

 

Hey no worries @stevex6 ... your Seljuk silver is itself a work of art. Islamic tenets often forbid the depiction of icons or organic motifs that may bear semblance (regardless of remoteness) of idolatry. Thus having one with such designs are incredibly interesting..

 

Absolutely. The porosity are results of air bubbles at the surface of the moulds during the cooling process when in contact with molten silver. Unlike modern machine struck or pressed ingots

 

Urrgh.. I just realized autocorrect has screwed up my title.. "Pak Chee" not "Pakistan Chee".. But I can't edit and correct.. Don't know why.. Apologies all

 

Hit "Report" ... and ask the dudes to retype it for you ...

 

Hey dawg, I reported your thread title correction as well (hopefully they'll change it to "Steve's Big Silver Flower Monkey Adventure")

... but yah, hopefully they'll change the Pakistan Chee to "Pak Chee"

Oh, and I also mentioned that you might be smuggling drugs with your coins (hey, just tryin' to do my part)



... just jokes (I said handguns, not drugs)