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Porcelain money refers to coins and tokens made of porcelain intended for economic exchange. Most famous are the German Notgeld struck between 1921 and 1923, and the gambling tokens used as petty coinage in Siam with Chinese characters.
German Notgeld
editThe German porcelain Notgeld were made between the years 1915 and 1923, in the years before the German Hyperinflation, and a shortage of small change.[1] [2] Most of the porcelain Notgeld were produced for collectors in sets. These special form of coins were struck in Meissen in Saxony in the years 1921 to 1923.
Most of the coins were made in red Böttgerstoneware, but also in white porcelain. Some of them are partly gilt. They were issued for the province Saxony in the cities Meissen and Freiberg, the state of Thuringia in the city of Eisenach, in Silesia in the city of Münsterberg and in Saxony-Anhalt in the city of Quedlinburg. Building on the popularity of these tokens, Meissen continued to strike Medals in porcelain and stoneware.[citation needed]
Siamese gambling tokens
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Also known as "Thai porcelain tokens" or "pee" (Chinese: 暹罗陶瓷代币 Xiānluó táocí dàibì),[3][nb 1] originally tokens for gambling, these small porcelain tokens became popular as petty coinage. They were made in a variety of forms: round, square, and rectangular. Some have inscriptions in Chinese or Thai, some have a pictorial design. There are several collections of these in museums around the world, including the British Museum,[4] the Wereldmuseum Leiden,[5] the Sammlung Köhler-Osbahr Archived 2017-12-13 at the Wayback Machine (Duisburg).[6][7]
Malaysian clay gaming tokens
editThese were issued in Chinese settlements in the Malay states, for use in gaming establishments, and then as currency. The early tokens were imported from Siam, and over time they were also made locally. The tokens were easy and cheap to produce. To deal with large-scale counterfeiting, licensed issuers would change the designs frequently. This eventually led to the appearance of a new type of gambling counter, called jokoh.[8]
Notes
edit- ^ "Pee" is a form of the Pinyin 币 "bì". They should strictly speaking be called "bi". Others say that they should be called "pi" from the character 鈚， from the Chinese Chaozhu dialect word meaning a token
References
edit
- ^ Funck, Walter: Deutsche Porzellan-Münzen = German Porcelain-Coins, German.-Engl. ed, 2nd ed., Neuenburg/Oldb.: [self published], 1964.
- ^ Scheuch, Karl: Münzen aus Porzellan und Ton der Staatlichen Porzellanmanufaktur Meissen und anderer Keramischen Fabriken des In- und Auslandes, Munich 2012.
- ^ "暹罗陶瓷代币综述" [Overview of Siam Ceramic Tokens] (in Chinese).
- ^ http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?searchText=pee&place=41403&material=17994 [dead link]
- ^ van Dongen, Paul LF. "Playthings in Porcelain: Siamese Pee in the National Museum of Ethnography". in collaboration with Nandana Chutiwongs, translated by Enid Perlin. Leiden.[dead link]
- ^ Althoff, Ralf H. (1995), Sammlung Köhler-Osbahr II/3. Vormünzliche Zahlungsmittel und außergewöhnliche Geldformen, Siamesische Porzellantoken - Collection Köhler-Osbahr II/3. Primitive Currency and Extraordinary Kind of Money, Siamese Porcelain-Tokens, Duisburg
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "Thai Porcelain Tokens (pee)". Chinese Money Matters. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
Thai porcelain tokens (pee) are found in many collections
- ^ "MALAYSIA MONETARY TOKENS. CLAY GAMING TOKEN". NIEWMISMATIC ERROR COINS. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
