Entree Kibbles: Coin Museum @ Bangkok [Thailand]

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Coin Museum @ Bangkok [Thailand]

I am not exactly a museum goer but I was out since morning and was desperately craving for some air-conditioning to cool the body. Coincidentally, we chanced upon the Coin Museum right after checking out Khao San road.

To prolong our stay, we expressed our interest in the museum tour. However, it was a 90-minute tour with timings to adhere too, and a ticket charge!

Temporary exhibition was free though. The temptation of air-conditioning had turned us into scheming individuals. I actually went in with an open mind as there could be interesting stuff, although I think paper money has a higher value than coins.

Exhibition: Ascending the Throne.

Instead of coins, the information was on King Vajiralongkorn, the 10th King of the Chakri Dynasty, and his ascent to be King of Thailand following the death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

There was some relevance to coins; like a set of circulation coins featuring the portrait of King Vajiralongkorn in 2018, before his coronation, even though his reign started in 2016.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit.

And the commemorative coin with their image.

After a while, I realized we had gone against the flow of the exhibition. It appeared that the exhibition was really talking about the medals, commemorative coins for each King and since King Vajiralongkorn has only started his reign, the coins under his reign were limited.

These were the medals produced during the reign of King Rama V, King Chulalongkorn. I studied history in secondary school and two Thai kings stood out in the books; one of whom is King Chulalongkorn.

Another exhibition, known as the beginning of currency. There was a no access sign and I think this would be part of the museum tour I spoke of earlier.

Technically, I didn't step in; just pull apart the curtain and took the above photograph. Looked like a cave and I am guessing projections of primitive human beings using seashells or even stones as "currency".

Back to the temporary exhibition. This time, on King Rama IV, King Mongkut who is father of King Chulalongkorn and another Thai king that the history book, in my secondary school, focused on.

I am accustomed to seeing flat coins.

And these nuggets fascinated me. Known as pod duang, they were the currencies used before 1860 when King Mongkut had his first royal mint built, with a steam-powered machine that was able to produce flat coinage.

There was another mention of pod duang near the museum shop. While we are accustomed to baht as a denomination in Thai, do you know that each baht can be divided into 100 satangs? I didn't know!

Interested in collectable coins?

You can purchase some in the museum shop.

There was also a list of provincial medals. I run a check and there are a staggering 77 provinces in Thailand; even for China, the fourth largest country in the world, there are only 23 provinces!

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