Tourists who come to Thailand easily adapt to the currency system of this country. But imagine that a few centuries ago, foreigners who wanted to sell or buy something in Tai were dizzy from trying to deal with Thai money.
And that's why.
It turns out until 1860 Thai coins were not flat at all, but a convex pineal shape, usually cast from silver, less often from gold. In Tae they were called "pod duang", and foreigners most often called them simply "money-bullets". It is believed that the first Thai coins of this shape appeared during the Sukhothai period (13th-15th centuries) of Thai history, and were probably introduced by King Ramkampeng at the end of the 13th century.
During its existence, "under the duang" were produced in different sizes, which changed over the centuries. It is curious that, before becoming the equivalent of the buying and selling process, originally “under the duang”, it was nothing more than a measure of weight.
In early Sukhothai, bullet coins were not particularly diverse. Basically they came in three sizes and weights: one baht, half a baht, and a quarter baht. Moreover, their weight did not depend on the type of metal. Gold and silver were of equal value at the time. The only difference was that gold coins, due to the higher density of the metal of manufacture, were smaller in volume than silver ones.
Until 1360, anyone with the source material could, in principle, make coins, provided that this activity was confirmed by a government specification. But during the Ayutthaya period (14-18 centuries), there were already 22 forms of embossing on the surface "under the duang", including the Wheel of the Law (a symbol of Buddha's teachings), Garud (a mythical creature half-man-half bird), elephant and lotus, shells of mollusks, etc. …
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The emergence of the original spherical shape of money has been repeatedly discussed by experts, who ultimately agreed that it most likely originated from the shape of a mollusk shell. The use of seashells for money, and cowrie in particular, was a widespread practice until the mid-19th century. In everyday language, the cowrie in Thailand was called "bia", in financial circles - "giving bia", and in the literature this type of mollusk was called "the one that has a shell in the shape of a flower."
However, for the sake of objectivity, it should be noted that the spherical shape of money was hardly convenient, since it was difficult to wear, given that the national dress for men was the sarong skirt, and for women it was phasing. Therefore, many centuries ago, Thais made a through hole in the "duang" in order to string them on a rope, and probably hang them on a belt or neck. Echoes of this tradition can be seen in the mountainous peoples of Thailand and Burma, the Karen, whose women adorn themselves with small duang necklaces.
The end of the duang era came in 1860, when King Mongut (Rama 4) issued a decree that the form of money should be changed to flat. This was due to a rather chaotic period in the monetary system, which has been preserved since the moment when the capital and government moved to Bangkok, after the destruction of Ayutthaya (1767) by the Burmese. During this period, not only "duang" were in circulation, but also real cowrie clams for small transactions, and along with them, game tokens known as "pi" could be used. Meanwhile, the country was becoming more and more open to the foreign market, and such an unstable system of monetary circulation was unacceptable for sellers from overseas.
Gradually, foreign money began to enter the Thai market. And finally, since 1850, the government was forced to import Danish guilders, pesos from Mexico and Peru. This fact only precipitated the need to introduce their own "flat" money, as Thai sellers complained that foreign coins certainly contained less silver than "duang" coins.
The first attempts to make "flat" Thai money date back to 1961, but they have led to unexpected results. Since the metal content was higher in price than the value of the banknote, they easily disappeared as a result of remelting.
Nevertheless, samples of Thai bullet coins have survived to this day, and most often you can get acquainted with them at exhibitions of numismatists, or sites, online stores specializing in this area of collecting, where they offer a lot of modern money for them.