CHAPTER 21 - Gambling Counters as Money in Siam

Abstract

This chapter highlights the use of gambling counters as money in Siam. The most curious form of primitive currency that was until recently in use in Siam consisted of Chinese gaming counters. These counters bore Chinese inscriptions and were reckoned to be worth 2 annas and 4 annas. Such gambling counters formed the sole small change at Zimmé before the Bangkok copper currency supplanted them. Up to 1874, salt was used as currency for purchases in the Zimmé market. Lumps of silver, whose shape and weight vary in different localities, are still in use as money in remote districts. In the gold producing districts gold dust was until recently the sole currency. A tube of gold dust, 10 cm in length and the thickness of the thumb was the price of a buffalo. Taxes were paid in it. After the Second World War cigarettes became the favorite medium of exchange and unit of account for a short time. Advertisements appearing in Siamese newspapers quoted prices in cigarettes.