1 Salung - Rama IV

Rama IV — better known in the West as King Mongkut — came to the throne in 1851 after spending 27 years as a Buddhist monk, during which he taught himself Latin and studied Western astronomy and science. His reign marked Thailand's deliberate engagement with European powers to forestall colonization, and the coinage of this period reflects that transition. The bullet money tradition was already centuries old when these pieces were struck, but Mongkut simultaneously authorized the introduction of Western-style flat coinage — making this issue part of a monetary system actively being dismantled by its own issuer.