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.
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.