Khmer Empire

Neat coin, Medieval. Thanks for the background on ancient (medieval?) Khmer coinage...certainly an area that hasn't had much coverage on ancient boards, unfortunately. Having said that, I really appreciate how many more posts there are devoted to non-Western ancient coinage here at Coincommunity than other discussion sites.

Aw I got something in the mail that would run nicely with this thread!


I would like to know if the obverse and reverse are text or ornamentation.? I see Chinese inspiration for this coinage. Do you know if this was used as local or trade currency? Was this used in Cambodia or was it made for use abroad in areas where Chinese Cash coinage was recognized? I am interested in the fact these Khmer were almost entirely Hindu yet surprisingly the coinage is devoid of Indian influence, yet the architecture pays homage to the Chola of old.

@ 'Ancientnoob'

As you indicated in your topics, there is still a lot of mystery surrounding the detailed history (including monetary history) of the South-East Asian area. Probably due to limited access in recent history to the area except for Thailand and Malaysia.
Quoting Mitchiner I took the easy way out and wanted to stir up some comment, was especially waiting for yours. The 'Lotus Flower' coinage was certainly just a floral design, some newer research designate them as tokens (possible gambling tokens) originating rather around the fall of Angkor( ie the mid 1400s - which still fits into this forum). But they also state that those token were used for small local transactions, ie giving them monetary characteristic. In their opinion the first real Khmer coinage eventuated with the 'Hamsa Bird' coinage (Fuangs and Pes) around 1600 - not fitting into this forum.
(Other items which were used for monetary exchange in South-East Asia include porcelain Siamese gambling token and (mainly brass) opium weights in Burma.)
Btw, there was an interesting BBC documentary on Angkor a few weeks back (wonder if it can be found on their website, worth watching for the history buff) covering the work of British and French teams trying to determine what caused the demise of Angkor.