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1 Salung - Rama III Bai Matum
| Issuer | Royal Siamese Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 1838 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Centrally impressed on the flattened upper face of the bullet-form silver planchet is the Bai Matum (bael fruit leaf) royal chop mark, a stylised trilobed device punched into the surface to authenticate the coin as genuine royal issue. The mark is deeply struck and displays characteristic raised outlines against the surrounding field. The remainder of the surface is plain and irregular, reflecting the hand-worked nature of Thai bullet coinage production. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Bai Matum coinage of Rama III belongs to the last generation of bullet money — the pod duang tradition stretching back centuries in Siam — before Western-style flat coinage displaced it entirely under Rama IV. These pieces were struck by hand, each blank heated, folded, and countermarked individually, which means no two are dimensionally identical despite sharing a nominal weight standard. The salung was the quarter-baht unit, and surviving examples from Rama III's reign (1824–1851) frequently show the characteristic compressed, asymmetric form of a rushed palace mint operation rather than a deliberate commercial one.