The Missing Link- Coin Development in Southeast Asia

Recently, I posted a coin of Ancient Burma (Myanmar), for fun as a "Mystery Coin of the Day, of which @TIF was able to deduce its origin. She was able to do this (even though being generally unfamiliar with these coins) by realizing their was a huge Conch shell on the obverse and the Srivatsa reverse, both of which are considered auspicious symbols in both Hinduism and Buddhism. She also deduced that the coin was from Burma based on similar coin fabric as a coin of the region I had posted many moons ago. For this I give her mad props. The reason for the mad props is that this is a very important skill when determining the origin of coins of Southeast Asia. As archaeological study of the various civilizations is in its infancy and the coins them selves are inherently rare, this is how numismatic experts go about about cataloging these coins. They take an educated guess.

Michael Mitchiner did the same when he attributed this coin to the Davaravati kingdom. The Dvaravati was both a kingdom and a cultural / Ethnic identity of a people, spanning a huge geographical area in Burma,Thailand and Cambodia. The differentiation between them and the Mon culture is rather blurred and often you see a reference like "The Mon Kingdom of Dvaravati. Likely referring to the Mon culture who established a kingdom in Thailand in the mid 5th century AD. (now hold that thought)

For a little back ground: The Mon culture is thought to have originated in Burma, sometime during the Pyu (pronounced Pew) Period. The Pyu are credited being the first culture to settle Burma of which records exist sometime around BC 200. Historically the Mon were located in Lower Burma and the Pyu in the central region.

The Pyu City States as well the Mon Culture of Thaton and Pegu coexisted for nearly 1000 years as a trade hub between India and China. There are several accounts in ancient Chinese history of cities of great wealth and power minting coins of silver. It is also mentioned as being a destination of Arab traders in the 8th century. Their contribution to art and architecture in the region continued long after they were gone and forgotten. Mon and Pyu coinage came to an abrupt end when their cities were overrun and destroyed by the Chinese of Nanzhao in AD 832. Early Rising Sun coinage would come to end with the collapse of Funan (another culture and post for a different day) in Thailand around AD 550.


In Burma, Pagan would rise and preserved much of the art and architectural style. They would continue with an advanced culture, trade and commerce would flourish for centuries yet metal was never again to be struck into coin as it had been in the good ol' days. The Mon Kingdom of Dvaravati would continue to produce conch style coinage up to about AD 1050. Local lead coinage would replace silver in Cambodia under the Khmer ( AD 802 -1431.) Otherwise coinage would not return to the region until the arrival of Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Ok, I know I have thrown a lot of information at you and if you are still reading I commend you. I titled this thread "The Missing Link", why you ask? Well... this coin is interesting in that it combines the the conch obverse of the Mon coins of Pegu with the reverse linear srivatsa of the Beikthano, Pyu Rising Sun type. (Also produced by Funan in Thailand.) The Rising Sun types are still considered "unattributed". WOW! The linkage does not seem to be coincidental or superficial. It even extends to the ancillary symbols in the reverse left and right fields!

Determining actual mints and dates for the coinage of Southeast Asia is exceptionally difficult as nearly all the silver coinage ever produced in the region has really large distribution, extending from Eastern Bengal to the coast of Vietnam. The greatest concentration of this coin type comes from Syriam a Mon city in Burma.

The first foreign account of Syriam was the Arab Geographer ibn Khordadbeh, in AD 850. At this time Syriam was in decline and eventually fell to Pagan in AD 1056. In turn Pagan collapsed in AD 1287 due to repeated Mongol invasions, and after he Mon would again regain their Independence.

By the 1580's the harbor of Syriam had silted up and was still visited by European traders when Pegu fell to the Portuguese in 1599 and the rest is....well Modern History.

Oh yea, and the coin got a bath in a sodium bicarbonate solution...

Burma, Syriam
Anonymous Civic Coinage (AD 550-675)
AR Full Unit (96 Ratti)
28 mm x 8.14 grams
Obverse: Conventionalized Conch Shell within solid bead at base with 2 concentric lines on the body, all within a line and bead border.
Reverse: Simplified Linear Srivatsa. Swastika to right, Bhadrapitha to left. and Crescent moon in the upper left. Sun in the upper right.
Ref: Wicks Class F. pg.113
Note: Alternate reported find spots; U Thong, Thailand, Sri Ksetra, Burma
Prov: Private Collection, Tochigi, Japan

 

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Way cool Dude! Very very nice. You even gave the new baby a bath! Good daddy!

 

They are very pretty

 

Well Jeeeze thanks guys!

 

Anoob, I'm always amazed at the breath of your collecting. These coins look great, even though I have no idea of what I'm looking at.

 

@Bing , the bottom coin with the shell, from the composite image he posted, is one of the rarest Asian coins you'll ever come across. Only 32 are known to exist. I bid on one a year ago at auction, but someone else wanted it more. If I ever come across another, I won't make that mistake again.

 

Well, I know absolutely nothing about coins from Asia. I'm afraid if I look too close at them, I may get interested. I barely have a budget for Roman and Greek, so I'll let you and others fight over them. Hmm, only 32 known, eh? Hmmmmmm

 

oh wow, another awesomely weird eastern coin AN ....thanks for sharing that one!

i had to look up what a srivasta was...





i mean here..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrivatsa

 

Nice and interesting. There are several Asian countries that have coins with similar designs like these. Tibet and Morocco are among some of them, and there are probably more.

 

Stay tuned for more rare and obscure coins of Southeast Asia...

...I was able to locate quite a few different types

but alas I cannot show them because of the jinx. @LaCointessa @stevex6

 

LooLL. And after all the buildup of waiting for the coins to arrive so I could post them, I learned they were not a good bargain and I am putting them back in the mail to the seller this morning.

 

Don't worry. Your new coins are going out today. If you get a letter addressed from a Florida firm, don't throw it away. Check for coins inside.

 

Wow! Only 32 of that coin known to exist? That's amazing!

Oh, I just saw your other post @Sallent . I'm not worried. Thankfully, I am not a worrier; but I am excited and very grateful. Of course, I will keep my eyes open for your mail and will let you know when it arrives!

 

There are a few people on this forum that have a coin type where less than 10 are known to exist.

I know someone here has a coin that there are only 2 known examples of, the other being in a museum. But I don't remember who that is now.

 

Collect Roman provincial coins, a.k.a. Greek imperial coins. There are very many types as rare as that, and often they do not command much of a premium.

This coin of Otacilia Severa, wife of Philip I (244-249), is from Antioch. Prier, The Syro-Phoenician tetradrachms, is a standard reference that give how many of each type he knew of after many years of collecting data. The legend is
MA ΩTAKI CEOVHPA NCEB
Usually it is
MA ΩTAKIΛ CEOVHPA NCEB

Prier does not list it. So, Prier knew of zero.

McAlee, The Coins of Roman Antioch, notes this as type 1086 with a legend variant in a footnote citing a sale catalog, Gorny 92 (20-21 Nov. 1998), lot 425. (Maybe this is that coin?)

So, two major references know of one example. Nevertheless, I bought it slabbed for less than unslabbed examples of typical varieties have been selling on eBay. I didn't notice the "rare" variety when I bid and would not have added anything to my bid if I had. (The slab gives the NGC "grade", but not a detailed ID.)

I would call this a "variety" and not a "type." It is not enough different to warrant the term "type". So, this is not a good example of my assertion that there are many Roman provincial types with few examples known. But, if rarity floats your boat, I suggest you collect Roman provincial coins.

 

you oughta still post a pic of'em. they are still your 1st ancients.

 

I did post them in a thread called: I just purchased my first ancient coin.

And Btw, I'm not surprised TIFF figured out where the coin was from. @TIF is incredible. Reading some of her technical ancient coin posts is like reading a while other language. She seems awful smart. I wanna be knowledgeable like her one day. (diligent learning student)

 

O ok good job then.

 

Very cool