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1 Baht - Rama IV
| Issuer | Thailand |
|---|---|
| Year | 1851-1860 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Baht |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse face of this pod duang (bullet coin) bears two impressed royal seal marks applied by hammer dies onto the convex surface of the folded silver planchet. The upper mark depicts the Chakra (discus), the sacred wheel emblem of the Chakri dynasty, rendered with a serrated outer rim encircling a central ring. Immediately below appears the Mongkut (crown), the personal royal cypher of King Rama IV (King Mongkut), shown as a stylised crown surmounting a decorative base with flanking foliate scrolls. Both devices are deeply incuse into the rounded silver surface, characteristic of Thai bullet coinage of the mid-nineteenth century. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse presents the characteristic squared-off base of the pod duang bullet form, exhibiting the deep cruciform fold mark at the centre where the silver rod was bent and fused during manufacture. The broad, smooth convex field surrounding the fold mark shows the natural hammer-worked surface texture of the silver, with no additional devices or inscriptions. This undecorated base face is entirely typical of Siamese bullet coinage and serves primarily as evidence of the manufacturing technique rather than as a bearer of iconographic content. |
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| Additional information |
The bullet or "pot duang" coinage of mid-nineteenth century Siam represents one of the longest-unbroken minting traditions in the world, with this form of hand-bent rod coinage produced continuously for roughly six centuries before Western-style flat coins finally replaced it. Rama IV — better known in the West as King Mongkut, the monarch later fictionalized in *The King and I* — actively pushed Siam toward modernization, eventually commissioning a flat coinage mint in 1860, which brought this type to an abrupt end.
Each piece was individually formed by hand, bent, and countermarked, meaning no two are dimensionally identical.