Coined: The Rich Life of Money and How Its History Has Shaped Us

by Kabir Sehgal

  Like a fossil, money can help us remember and understand a society. Because coins are made from durable metals, they survive over the years and provide clues about the place and period in which they were made. People often stored coins in jars and buried them because they didn’t have access to banks or wanted to preserve their wealth from, say, an invading army. Some of these hoards were forgotten, only to be discovered centuries later with their unspoiled coins.

  Many scholars see antique money as a type of art, especially because many pieces were designed by artisans and craftsmen. For example, the famous Indian Head cent of the nineteenth century was crafted by portraitist James Longacre, who also served as chief engraver of the US Mint. One of the most widely viewed portraits in the world is of George Washington, which was painted by Gilbert Stuart and is found on the one-dollar bill. A curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the late Cornelius Vermeule III, observed that early American coins with patriotic images inspired other artisans to include similar depictions on furniture, glassware, needlework, and even cookie cutters. For example, in 1892, the Central Glass Company made glass tables with a “Coin” pattern, which had replicas of US coins embedded in the design. However, the US government prohibited this line because of counterfeiting concerns.10 Vermeule explains the aesthetic movement: “As the nineteenth century progressed, patriotism, publicity, and national numismatic motifs were intermixed.”11 He writes that money, especially coins, is a type of democratic art, accessible to the people and worthy of study:

  The United States coinage represents a great attempt, still in process, to provide democracy with instruments of visual beauty… Coins are the one form of art to which every American is exposed at every moment. They are the only class of sculpture that a large segment of the population ever handles… knowledge that coins… are a form of official, historical art designed to reach citizens in every epoch of United States affairs makes an aesthetic study worthwhile.12

  In 1970, UNESCO officially recognized the historical importance of “cultural property” such as coins that are more than one hundred years old, and suggested ways to regulate the trade of them.13

  Coin collectors, or numismatists, are especially good at interpreting the symbols found on these cultural properties. Numismatics, the study and collection of money, is an ancient activity. Archaeologists have found coin collections that date back to the Roman Empire. Even Emperor Augustus Caesar, who lived in the first century AD, collected coins from distant lands and gave them to friends. Around AD 250, the Roman mint issued commemorative coins with images of several of the emperors. During the Italian Renaissance, in the fourteenth century, the scholar and poet Petrarch was renowned for his collection of ancient coins. In fifteenth-century Europe, collecting money was called a “hobby of kings,” as many members of royal families and aristocrats built their collections.14 Sixteenth-century collector Guillaume Budé wrote one of the first numismatic texts, Libellus de Moneta Craeca, or “A pamphlet of Greek coins.” In 1834, the first numismatics magazine, Blätter für Münzkunde, or “Hannover’s Numismatics,” was published in Hannover, Germany.15 During the twentieth century, well-known collectors included King Farouk of Egypt and Josiah Lilly, who ran pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company; a coin that has been owned by a famous collector usually is considered to have a pedigree because of the record of ownership, and is thus more valuable. Also during the twentieth century, this hobby of kings was practiced by the masses, as coin collecting was democratized with the creation of local coin clubs, conventions for traders, and an online market.

  According to the US Mint, 147 million people collected coins as part of the 50 States Quarters Program. In 1997, after years of work by numismatists and debate among congressmen, President Bill Clinton signed the program into law; the quarters program was “to promote the diffusion of knowledge among the youth of the United States about the individual States, their history and geography, and the rich diversity of the national heritage.”16 The law also stipulated that the design of each coin was to be “dignified” and something of which US citizens would be “proud.”17 A rigorous process for the selection of each coin’s design was established. Many of the designs were created by professional artists who participated in the US Mint’s Artistic Infusion Program, the website for which says, “The designs on United States coins and medals are more than simple illustrations on small metal discs; they are expressions of the values, aspirations, and shared heritage of our Nation. They serve as illustrations to the world of the essence and the story of America.”18

  One of those stories is that of Caesar Rodney. He is on the Delaware quarter, which was the first one issued as part of the program because Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution. Caesar Rodney was born in Delaware, and he eventually served as Speaker of the state house and as a state supreme court justice. However, he also suffered from asthma and cancer. In 1776, during the Second Continental Congress, the two members of the Delaware delegation were in disagreement regarding whether to vote for independence. Rodney, also a member, was many miles away, at home. According to Jim Noles, the author of A Pocketful of History, there is a popular legend in which Rodney was notified of the impasse, and despite his sickness, jumped on his horse and galloped in the rain toward Philadelphia, where he yelled to awaiting delegates, “I vote for independence!”19 Rodney’s fateful ride is portrayed on the Delaware quarter.

  Every US quarter, and every coin, tells a part of America’s story, from Duke Ellington on the Washington, DC, quarter to Sacagawea on the dollar coin. American numismatist Frank Meyer writes that every citizen should take the time to understand the story that American money tells:

  Coins of the United States serve not only as a medium of exchange, but also as an expression of the ideals and aspirations of a people. They contain a symbolism which should be understood and prized by every American citizen. While these coins are commonly used, they carry devices and legends which are little noted or seldom comprehended. It will be, therefore, a profitable experience for all students to study and gain an appreciation for the symbolic significance of the coins of their country.20

  But it’s not just US citizens who should look more closely at their country’s coins. People all around the world can enrich their civic and cultural understanding by studying their nations’ past and present money. This is what I tried to do, as the culmination of my quest to understand money and how its history has shaped us.

  To discover more about the symbols on the symbols, the story that money tells, I met with numismatists in many countries, in the spare moments away from my day job. Herein are but a few conversations from collectors in Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and the United States. I asked them to choose a few coins that best symbolize their countries. I sought their opinions for how and why the symbols represented the nation in which they lived. In doing so, I hoped to discover how money can be a symbol of national values. Most of all, I listened to their stories and began to see how collecting coins has shaped them and can reveal much about their countries and cultural identities.

  These numismatists helped me see that one may lose oneself in the accumulation of money, but remember oneself in the study of it. If making and understanding symbols are part of what makes us human, then the symbols we put on our money help to tell our collective story.

  The Satan of Numismatics

  Howard Daniel didn’t attend school until the fifth grade. He had rheumatic fever as a kid, so he was homeschooled. To enliven his history lessons, his parents brought him stamps from around the world, which sparked his curiosity and sense of adventure.

  “I grew up poor white cracker trash in Florida,” he explained. We met at a café in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam, where we sipped sour limon chanh drinks. His mother always seemed to squander money, so he resolved that one day he would be wealthy.

  In 1959, at the age of seventeen, he enlisted in the US Army. His career in army intelligence took him all
over the world. In 1964, he met a senior enlisted member of the US Air Force in Okinawa, Japan—a numismatist who specialized in Japanese money. He was trying to convince other military personnel to study the money of East Asia. He insulted Howard’s intelligence by saying, “Vietnamese money will be too difficult for you to understand.” Howard doesn’t like to be doubted.

  Vietnam became an integral part of his life. Howard was stationed in Vietnam during the war, married a Vietnamese woman, and still lives for half the year in the country.

  “In the military, we destroy things; a numismatist creates something,” he explains. Over time, he amassed a collection of thousands of coins, worth at least $400,000, which he keeps in two refrigerators in his home in Virginia. He has 31 gigabytes of digital pictures of money saved on a hard drive. He has authored several books on the money of Southeast Asia and is considered a leading expert on the topic. He would probably be the president of the Numismatics Society of Vietnam—if there were one. But Vietnam’s communist government frowns upon the capitalist hobby of collecting money.

  “I’m known as the ‘Satan of Numismatics,’ because I’m brutally honest,” he said.

  Once at a money convention in the United States, a dealer with a dubious reputation pestered Howard to do business with him. Instead, Howard yelled at the top of his lungs, “Get the fuck out of my face! You are as worthless as tits on a boar hog!” The dealer left with his reputation in tatters, and Howard left with a new nickname.

  He demonstrated his characteristic bluntness during our conversation.

  “I like it raw,” he stated. Raw means money that isn’t sealed in a case. Slabbed is money that is sealed in a (usually, plastic) case. It’s a debate that has historically divided numismatists. “I like to touch the money. Collectors like me preserve things better, anyways. In the old days, Vietnam’s museums weren’t equipped to preserve ancient money. The financial history of Vietnam is disappearing, and that’s why I collect money, to help the next generation learn about it.”

  With a gap of forty years between us, I am part of this next generation. So I asked him, what coin best represents Vietnam?

  “It makes sense to start at the beginning,” he explains.

  Dinh Bo Linh coins are Vietnam’s first. After Vietnam was liberated from the Southern Han Dynasty of China in the tenth century AD, its people fell into civil war. Through a series of battles and political maneuvers, one of the chieftains, Dinh Bo Linh, gained power and unified his country, becoming the emperor known as “Thai Binh” and ruling from 968 to 979.21 To unify his kingdom, he issued his own currency: “cash”-style coins that resembled Chinese coins with a square hole in the middle. The coins weighed anywhere from 2.28 to 4.32 grams. Heavier coins indicate the robustness of the economy in which they were issued, since they have a higher content of copper, a rare metal. Coins that weigh less were issued during a less prosperous and wartime era. They had a lower content of copper and higher amounts of zinc and lead, which were less valuable. Lighter coins indicate a period of war because copper and other hard metals were used to make arms.22

  These early coins had the ruler’s name, Thai Binh Hung Bao, on the front. On the reverse was “Dinh,” the name of the dynasty.23 On coins from this era, when the characters on the money look clear and in precise calligraphy, it’s considered an indication that the ruler was well educated, surrounded himself with scholars, and was interested in the education of his people. However, if the characters are illegible and the calligraphy is poor, it suggests a ruler who lacked a strong education and was a warlord with a military background. It’s also considered a sign that the ruler wasn’t as interested in the well-being and education of his people.24

  At first glance, the coins of this period are nothing more than metal disks with holes in the middle. But on further analysis, they are symbols of economic prosperity and hardship, war and peace, and a clue to the priorities of the ruler. I didn’t learn anything about ancient Vietnamese history in school. But I learned a bit about this country’s past by looking more closely at its money.

  From Brooklyn to Bangkok, by Way of Vietnam

  A Brooklyn accent is hard to shake. Even if you haven’t been back since 1974. Born in Brooklyn, Ron Cristal completed his law degree and volunteered to serve during the Vietnam War as a judge advocate officer in 1968. After a month in Vietnam, he was sent by train to an eastern province of Thailand to help American soldiers who had been accused of starting a fire that had destroyed a town.

  “I knew this was the place for me… I was home here,” he explains in his Brooklyn accent.

  His fateful train ride in 1969 started a lifelong commitment to Thailand. He studied the Thai language and speaks enough to get by. He has run a law firm in Bangkok since 1988 and became a Thai citizen in 1998. Ron also changed his name to Ronachai Krisadaolarn, which he picked because it sounded similar to his American name, and it has a grand meaning in Thai, “Victorious Battle, Majestic Power.”

  He has been interested in collecting coins since he was ten, and he channeled this passion into learning about his adopted country. He eventually became an expert on Thai money, so much so that the president of the Numismatic Association of Thailand, who is also a Thai police captain, wrote the preface to the book that Ronachai coauthored on Thai money; Thai monetary officials consult him on the design of new Thai money; and the king of Thailand has thanked him for his contributions to Thailand’s cultural legacy.

  We met in his office, on the seventeenth floor of a skyscraper in downtown Bangkok. It resembles an old newsroom, with many interior windows but with none of the reporters. Dressed in a half-sleeve button-down shirt, Ronachai ushered me into a room with a giant, off-white colored safe in which he keeps his coin collection. I asked him the same thing I asked Howard. What coins best represent this country?

  It’s not an easy question because Thailand has a diverse history, having been ruled by many different kings and influenced by several other civilizations. For example, during the Funan period, from the second to seventh centuries AD, India heavily influenced the region, and coins made by Bengalis circulated in Southeast Asia. Some of these coins had images of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, coins with marks in two or three languages were made in the Kra Isthmus, in southern Thailand. After giving it some thought, Ronachai, like Howard, started with his country’s first indigenous money, pot duang.

  During the thirteenth century, the first Thai kingdom, known as Sukhothai, was established. King Ramkhamhaeng is believed to have introduced pot duang, or “bullet coins,” which were chunky, made by hand, and looked like bullets. Each bears the symbol of the ruler who issued the coins. For example, the chakra, a Hindu symbol found on pot duang issued between 1782 and 1886, represented the Chakri Dynasty.

  Experts still debate where the use of pot duang as a currency originated. Some think that they were made to resemble cowrie shells, which were known to function as currency in China; others believe they derived from money that looked like bracelets circulating in Southeast Asia.25 Whatever the reason for their introduction and shape, pot duang circulated for six hundred years, until 1904. They remain an important part of Thailand’s monetary history.

  As Thailand advanced, so did its money. Gold and silver coins with the inscription “Krung Thep” (“city of angels”) were handmade in Bangkok during the reign of King Rama IV. These were flat, modern-looking coins that resemble early English hammered coins.26 It is fitting that King Rama IV introduced these coins because they symbolize the modernity that he embraced. Thailand still issued pot duang during his reign, whereas most other countries minted flat coins. By adopting flat coinage, King Rama IV was helping to modernize Thailand’s monetary system. In addition, he opened his kingdom to Western powers, signing commercial treaties with the United Kingdom and the United States; he was the inspiration for the king in the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam and the subsequent musical The King & I.27 Eventually, Queen Vict
oria gave Rama IV a hand-powered machine for making coins in Thailand.

  Ronachai let me hold his prized gold Krung Thep coin.

  “By holding it, you can feel Thailand’s cultural history. This coin is art,” he explained.

  “Is that why you collect money?” I asked.

  “Some people raise orchids, I collect coins,” he deadpanned.28

  Two Coins, Four Hundred Years

  Two coins can explain four hundred years of Filipino history: Dos Mundos are a symbol of Spain’s ascent as a world power and its conquest of the Philippines; counterstamped coins are symbols of Spain’s descent and exit from the Philippines.

  I learned about Dos Mundos coins from William “Willie” Villareal, a leader of the Philippine Numismatic & Antiquarian Society (PNAS), which was founded in 1929. But first he ran me through his thoughts on the state of numismatics in the Philippines. We met at the Polo Club in Manila, where he is a life member. Willie is as sharp as a razor, cracking colorful jokes while holding a tumbler of scotch in his right hand.

  “We meet whenever we want to get drunk,” he says with a laugh. “In the old days, we traded wives, but now that we’ve run out of wives, we trade coins.”

  Despite his irreverence, Willie sees PNAS as a highly respected organization. The eighty-five-year history of PNAS has made it one of the oldest institutions in the country and a de facto curator of Filipino culture. Amateurs and collectors who occasionally stumble upon a hoard of coins often first consult with PNAS on the legitimacy or significance of the coins before they bring them to the national museum. The PNAS has become a filter and adviser for several museums.