File:Crown ½ Fuang - Scott Semans 03.jpg

English: PHASE I COINAGE:

c. 1500 - 1650 NATIVE RULE       Cribb quotes S. Sarai (JNSI 1971 p.90-104) in attributing the first Cambodian coinage to the usurper Kan (1499-1505, or 1512-26), and the traveler Gabriel Quiroga de San Antonio in 1595 as finding coinage in three denominations of ratio 1:1/2:1/4 with designs of Cock (K9 & Panish 1a,,9d), Snake (K3), and heart with Flower (K4). The silver-washed billon types are probably later, and descended from the full unit. Cribb also asserts that there are two parallel series of coinage, those with and without borders (beaded or solid circle), each ranging from silver to billon to copper. As the denomination breakdown, dating, and ordering of types in KM is useless, I have followed Cribb's rearrangement of Panish's types, though combining the border / no border types. According to Panish all coins were minted at Battambang except K4 and K25/28 at Siem Reap. Both the rarity and high grade (or holed state for wearing) suggest that this coinage, possibly excepting the three types seen by Quiroga which are commoner, was issued for religious rather than commercial purposes. For convenience I have called the Unit "Fuang," though even at the lower 1.8-1.9g Ayuthian standard, the likely earliest Hamsa pieces (P1) are light. All coins are uniface.      A few of the Phase I types have come on the market from small hoards, though most rarely appear and some are known from single specimens. Most Phase II and III coinage is extremely common.

     K18      Crab Double Fuang     Silver, 15m, 2.79g. Apparently unpublished, and only the second known type of Double Fuang. The weight of this Fox specimen squares with P11b, Dragon or Hypogriff, which Wicks notes at 2.7-2.8g for 2 specimens, and Cribb calls a double Fuang. Compared to K19 (P8a), the Crab Fuang, seems slightly cruder stylistically, with a large body in proportion to the appendages, and large design in relation to the flan. 
     KA1      Crab 1/8 Fuang     Silver, 6-7m, avg. .152g for 15 pieces, flat flan. Cribb calls it a 1/4 Fuang following Panish's weights, but Wicks' figures are more exact and closer to my own finding. Fine style, though simplified in detail due to the tiny flans. 
     KA1a      Crab 1/8 Fuang     Silver, 6m, .158g, thicker flan, cruder, bolder design. A single specimen from the group, almost certainly a later issue. 
     K3      Lotus Sprout 1/4 Fuang     Silver, 8-9m, avg. .31g for 27 pieces, flat flan. This is what Quiroga called a snake, but it is a lotus seed with a curling root sprout, forked at the end, and (on some specimens) two bumps indicating lower forkings of the root. The spiral may be c/w or cc/w. Some specimens, possibly later, are cruder in style. Weights noted by Wicks seem to run .3-.6g suggesting a 1/2 Fuang, but without a clear denominational break. K3.1 = cc/w; K3.2 = cw; K3.1c and K3.2c = crude style examples. (which look F-VF), Each: 
     K4      Crown? 1/2 Fuang     Silver, 10-11m, avg. .67g for 8 pieces, flat flan. Fine style design, but what is represented is still debatable: heart, heart with flower, coconut, crown, and cocoa bean have all been suggested. Panish assigns this to Siem Reap.   Please give second choice of specimen. 
     K7      Hamsa Fuang     Silver, 12x15m, 1.33g (with 3 specimens ranging 1.25-1.37g in ANS Museum), dished flan. Simple design of Cock (or Hamsa?) left. This is the best candidate for the coin Quiroga noted as one of three types in circulation in 1595, though it is much rarer today than the other two. It is almost certainly the prototype for the common Hamsa "Fuang" of Phase II. Panish-1b, KM-unlisted. 
     K28a      Garuda Fuang     Silver, 15m, 1.85g, dished flan. Unpublished? Finely styled Garuda standing right, holding vine? in right hand, solid and beaded borders around. Panish notes only pieces with "snakes" in both hands or neither, and his illustrated specimen shows a fluid, snake-like object, while the Fox specimen looks more like a branch. The Fox specimen is also significantly heavier. Panish states the type was minted at Siem Reap. 
     K14A      Lotus Fuang     Billon? 15m, 1.41g (holed), dished flan. Unpublished? Finely styled Lotus with leaves at side, floating on water, beaded border around. A different style than Panish's specimen. Perhaps lower fineness than preceding types; the flan is smooth like the billon issues. 
     K17      Horse Fuang     Silver or Billon, 15m, 1.14, 1.41g (holed), dished flan. Horse standing right. 
     K15      Goat? Fuang     AR-washed Billon, 13-24m, 1.21, 1.25g, concave flan. Variously identified as a bull, mule, tapir, or goat, standing left. 
     K21      Hypogriff Fuang     AR-washed Billon, 13m, 1.65g, dished flan. Standing right with head reared back and mouth open, it has also been called a Dragon, and strongly resembles the Lion depicted on Tibetan coinage only after 1909. Panish also notes a double weight piece of this type, the only double piece for the billon series. The silver wash from the Fox specimen has worn away, revealing billon. 
     K22      Hypogriff Fuang     AR-washed Billon, 13m, 1.45g, dished flan. Standing left. This type is not listed in Panish. 
     K10      Peacock Fuang     AR-washed Billon, 14-12m, 1.37g, concave flan. Beautifully detailed, fine-style bird with slanted back to right, closed beak, perfunctory dashes in front representing vines? Panish 9a 
     K10A      Peacock Fuang     AR-washed Billon, 14m, 1.51g, flat flan. Fine-style bird with slanted back to left, open beak, holding realistic vine?, below, solid border around but mostly off flan. Panish 9d. 
     K6      Hamsa Fuang     Billon?, 13m, 1.70g, round, dished flan. Fine-style Hamsa left with horizontal & vertical crest elements, single beak, vine with bud & branch before, upper tail feathers: curved & branched fore feather, back feather curved with five horizontal elements behind. Recessed eye & detail in body. This is the finest, most detailed example of the Hamsa, and while it appears to be base metal or low-grade billon, it could be the prototype for the common Hamsa Fuang (K32). 
     K24      Garuda Fuang     AR-washed Billon, 14m, 1.24, 1.40g, dished flan. Garuda standing left, upraised arms holding snakes?; fine style 

     K25      Garuda Fuang     AR-washed Billon, 13.5-15m, avg. 1.32g for 8 specimens, slightly dished flan. Garuda standing left, empty arms upraised, solid and beaded borders around, uniface; fairly crude style. Relatively common, thus likely one of the latest issues of Phase I and probably even later than 1600.