Page:Pearl of Asia (Child JT, 1892).pdf/356



Silver is the standard of values in Siam, no gold being coined except a few pieces that the King distributes on coronation or cremation ceremonies. The gold pieces are similar in design to those of the silver coinage and possess twenty times their value. Their table of money and weights is as follows:

Fifty Biah make one Solot, two Solots one At, two Ats one See-o or Pai, two See-o one Seek, two Seeks one Fuang, two Fuangs one Salung, four Salungs one Baht or Tical, four Bahts one Tamlu'ng, twenty Tamlu'ng one Chang, fifty Changs one Hahp, one hundred Habps one Pahrah. The biah or cowdery shell has been abolished. The Solot, At, See-o and Seek are copper pieces; the Fuang, Salung and the Baht or Tical are silver pieces. The denominations after Baht represent weight, the Siamese chang is equivalent to two Chinese catties and is the equal of two and two-thirds English pounds. No law of Siam affects the Chinese standard of weight. The catty can be no more nor less than what the law of China ordains. As the export trade is greatly in excess of the imports, large quantities of Mexican dollars are brought into the country and recoined into ticals and smaller currency The late King Somdetch P'ra Chaum Klow established the present law, making five ticals the equivalent of three Mexican dollars, Mexican silver being the standard of the Asiatic coast. The importer takes his dol-