CAMBODIA 19TH CENTURY Hamsa Bird COIN with Album and Certificate
OBVERSE: HAMSA BIRD - UNIFACE
REVERSE: Blank
METAL: BRONZE
SIZE: ‘RANGE’ 10.5MM-16MM
The Cambodians are an ancient civilization located centrally on the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia. The ancient Cambodians, then known as Khmers, were referred to as early as the 12th century B.C. in Chinese chronicles. In the 5th century A.D., the Khmers as a nation rose to prominence around the same time as the area came under the influence of Hindu Brahmanism and the Sanscrit language originating from the east coast of India. It was also at this time that the name Kambuja (transliterated: Kampuchea/Cambodia), from the Hindu name of the mythical founder of the Khmer race, Kambu, was adopted as the title of the country. In the centuries that followed, Cambodia expanded its borders aggressively, often occupying large portions of the Siam and Champa kingdoms— the areas now known as Thailand and Vietnam. Around the 10th century A.D. Buddhism began to rival Brahmanism, the official religion.
The slow ruin of the Khmers began with defeats to Siam in the late 13th century that was followed by repeated invasions, made worse by internal revolts and feuds between royal families. The famous capital city of Angkor was repeatedly sacked and eventually abandoned in 1431. At the end of the 18th Century the western area of Cambodia including the province of Battambang was annexed by Siam. It was during this time that these undated coins were minted by the occupying Thais. The coins were struck with the image of the mythical Hamsa bird. The design was stylized and modified by the Thais with a Chinese "chi" above the bird. Similar coins remained in use until the 19th century. The Hamsa, for both Hindu and Buddhist, is the mount of Brahma. Because of the similarity in sound, the bird symbolizes the sacred "Aum".
Prior to 1847, no dates are found on coins of Cambodia. It is estimated that this 2 Pe coin was minted sometime between 1650 and 1850.
Beginning in the 16th century, Cambodian coins began to appear that were all small, round, one-sided coins with images of plants and animals.
They were crudely hand struck in silver, copper or billon (low grade silver) with a single die on a flat, blank surface. Most of the coins of this period were believed to have been minted at the occupied city of Battambang near the border with Siam.
The monetary system until 1860: 2 Att = 1 Pe, 4 Pe = 1 Fuang, 8 Fuang = 4 Salong = 1 Tical.
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