canoe money from Laos

Andres

not as spectacular as the copper plate money from Saor, but like to share it anyway.

SaorAlba

Those really appear to be more from the Mekong river area betwixt Laos and Thailand than either of the latter countries. I have some of the copper money myself, and a much older silver piece from the Kingdom of Lanchang in that area:



And here is my "canoe" money:



These things are really sort of cool aren't they? The silver piece has counterstamps on it, not sure if official or bankers, merchants etc. Sometimes these are referred to as tiger tongue money. There was a time when these were fairly easy to find and world dealers had them - but the supply of them dried up and the Chinese aren't faking them quite yet.

Andres

I think they are very cool, I like that silver tiger just started to buy some ""primitive money""

here are some late emergency dutch VOC pieces, chopped from japanese copper bars, all are worth 2 stuivers , but the weight dropped
considerable in the 1796 - 1810 timeperiod when these were issued, from 46 gram to 34 gram to finally 23 gram. Napoleon needed all the copper badly for his war efforts.,
so the price of copper went up and up, and the weight of the 2 stuiver pieces got less and less.

SaorAlba

Those are something I haven't owned yet! Weren't they referred to as "bonks" when they were being used?

Andres

Yes Saor, your right , in dutch: 1 bonk - 2 bonken

SaorAlba

My plate money could have served as armour in battle. Those bonks could be ammunition very easily. Like grapeshot from a cannon, or even sling shot. And they would do damage.