Method of writing year of minting on the coins of Arakan

Arakan is a historic area which constitutes a narrow strip along the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal. These lands have been under the control of different countries at different times. Initially the closer connection was with India, later with Burma (Myanmar). On the map below, the territory of Arakan is colored orange:

For the purposes of this article, we will be looking at Arakan coins minted during the period of the medieval state Mrauk-U, specifically the time span of 17^th and 18^th centuries A.D.:

The catalogues [1] and [2] were taken as a basis for compiling a table showing the numerals on Arakan coins. Note that these catalogs state that the year on Arakan coins is indicated according to the Buddhist era, which is incorrect! In fact, the dates are specified according to the Chula-Sakarat era (CS), which we have already covered on the page about coins of Thailand. Article [3] says that this era could also be called BE (Burmese Era), or Myanmar era (ME).

The last coins of Arakan with the CS year on them were minted in 1784 A.D. (CS 1146) — Arakan surrendered to the Burmese King Bodawpaya in 1784 and coins were issued by the king’s governor in Arakan, bearing the following inscription: «Amarapura, Kingdom of the Lord of Many White Elephants». The King of Arakan was taken captive, also taken were 20,000 captives as slaves to pagodas and temples. The territory of Arakan was annexed, making Burma bordered directly with British India.

Since the Chula-Sakarat era (CS) is used, the following relations are valid:

Year _A.D. = Year _CS + 638.

Year _CS = Year _A.D. − 638.

As in the case of Nepal, there were many variations in the writing of numerals in Arakan (especially applicable to: «1»; «4»; «7»). First, let's look at the forms of numerals used in Burma (Myanmar):

The following forms of the numerals could be found on the coins of Arakan of 17^th and 18^th centuries:

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

One can see that, in general, the Arakan numerals are rather similar in comparison with of the Burmese ones in terms of their shape, although the Arakan ones have a number of local peculiarities.

So, in order to identify the A.D. year of minting on a coin from Arakan, it is required to first read the CS year (by finding the corresponding numerals on the coin using our table above), and then add 638 years to that value.

Here's an example:

From the table above, we see that the year is 1097 (CS). Therefore, in our example the resulting year is: 1097 + 638 = 1735 A.D.

SOURCES:

1. KRAUSE Coin Catalogue: 1601–1700 (7^th edition, 2018), pages 1146–1147.

2. KRAUSE Coin Catalogue: 1701–1800 (7^th edition, 2016), pages 844–845.

3. Web article «Independent Kingdom of Arakan».

This article was published on November 11^th, 2024.