Gold Coins from Khlong Thom
An Update
Abstract
This update on my earlier article presents a third denomination of the gold coins from Khlong Thom. Previously, two denominations—of eight and four rattī—had been identified and discussed. The third denomination has a weight of one rattī. Its tiny flan has been struck on one side only with a śrīvatsa motif.
References
B. Borell, Gold Coins from Khlong Thom. JSS 105(2017), 151-177.
M. Veraprasert, Khlong Thom: An Ancient Bead and Manufacturing Location and an Ancient Entrepôt. In: Seminar in Prehistory of Southeast Asia, SPAFA Final Report, SEAMO Project in Archaeology and Fine Arts, Bangkok, 1987, 323; M. Veraprasert, Khlong Thom: An Ancient Bead-manufacturing Location and an Ancient Entrepôt. In: I. Glover, P. Suchitta, J. Villiers (eds.), Early Metallurgy, Trade and Urban Centres in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Bangkok 1992: White Lotus, 149.
See https://www.thailandnatureproject.com/abrus-precatorius.html (accessed 14 August 2019).
J. Cribb, Dating South East Asia's Earliest Coins. In: G. Bhattacharya (ed.), Deyadharma: Studien in Memory of Dr. D.C. Sircar. Delhi 1986: Sri Satguru Publications, 116, 123 no. C 19 pl. 3 (unfortunately, on plate 3 the images of obverse and reverse of C 19 are interchanged with those of no. B 10). It was acquired from a dealer and said to have been found in southern Thailand. It has a conch of the type of group C on one side, whereas the reverse is blank. The design and its weight of c. 0.45 grammes clearly relate it to the four-rattī group C.
Ronachai Krisadaolarn, personal communication, June 2017.
This coin had erroneously been identified as a Roman coin, see Sārānukrom Watthanatham Phāk Tai (Encyclopaedia of Southern Thai Culture), 10 vols., Bangkok: Toyota Foundation, 1986, vol. 2, 441 (colour); 691 (black-and-white).
Borell, Gold coins 170, 174.
