1 Fueang - Rama V Pattern, Coin alignment

Pattern coinage from Rama V's reign reflects the Siamese court's deliberate push toward Western minting norms in the late 1860s, a project driven largely by the influence of European advisors and the crown's awareness that traditional bullet ("pot duang") coinage was incompatible with modern commerce. This piece, struck in coin alignment rather than the medal alignment used on some contemporaries, suggests the Siamese were actively testing production conventions before committing to a standard. The pattern was never adopted for circulation.