|
Pattaya coin collector finds
Unique Rama V medal in Europe
Its circumstances puzzle medal and coin expert Jan Olav Aamlid
by Michael Brady
A pure gold medal commemorating King Rama V’s 17th birthday in 1870 has been
found and bought in Europe by Jan Olav Aamlid, a Pattaya resident who is a
recognised expert on the medals and coinage of Thailand. In appearance it is
identical to the first modern non-monetary medals of Thailand, which were
awarded to the winners of the contest then held to design illuminations for the
Grand Palace and other royal residences. But it is of pure gold, not gold-plated
silver, which according to most references was the first-place award in the
contest.
Front and back of the pure gold medal commemorating
King Rama V’s 17th birthday in 1870 that was found and bought in Europe by
Pattaya resident Jan Olav Aamlid.
So, Mr. Aamlid is puzzled. The medals awarded by King Rama V to the winners of
the contest of 1870 were of uniform design. With a diameter of 45 mm, the
obverse of the medal depicts the Coronet on a golden tray flanked by Royal
umbrellas, with the Chula Sakarat (CS) date, 1232, in the ribbon below. Its
reverse carries the monogram of the King’s full name, Somdeth Phra Paraminda
Maha Chulalong-korn. According to Medals of the Rattanakosin Era AD 1782-1982,
the definitive reference book published by the Treasury Department, Ministry of
Finance in April 1982, the medals were struck in gold-plated silver, silver and
bronze. Other references corroborate that listing. But through the years, there
has been mention of a medal of pure gold. Mr. Aamlid now knows that is correct.
History provides some clues to the circumstances of the medal. Gold was
plentiful at the time it was struck, so it would have been easier for the mint
to work in the pure metal, rather than plating it on silver. King Rama V
employed western advisers on a far larger scale than had his father, King Rama
IV. When he came of age in 1873, he travelled abroad to Java and Singapore, and
then to India. Later, in 1897 and 1907, he travelled to Europe. He spoke fluent
English and was a skilled photographer. He was well read in many fields,
particularly in science and technology. He established the postal and telegraph
service and the department of education and instituted standard coinage in
Thailand. His son Vajiravudh (King Rama VI 1910-25) was educated at Cambridge
and served with the British Army. Certainly, from his teens on, the learned King
Rama V must have been aware of the tradition of awarding gold, silver and bronze
medals to the first, second and third-place winners in a contest.
Mr. Aamlid believes that as the medal is genuine, the historical descriptions of
it must be inaccurate. But why? Perhaps it was because King Rama V, who in his
reign carried out far-reaching social reforms, began doing things differently
early on. King Rama IV had given gold and silver medals to members of the royal
family and servants. In the Ayutthaya period, the King had donated his weight in
gold and money to Brahmans. Kings had long favoured crowds at public gatherings
by strewing coins, often embedded in lemons to prevent injury. But in 1870, an
open contest was new. Newer yet, the contest was open to foreigners, as well as
to the nobility, civil servants and commoners. The gold medal obviously was
awarded to a European, who thereafter returned home. As the medal was no longer
in Thailand, the description of it was incorrect.
Had he found the medal in Bangkok or in Pattaya, where he lives part of the
year, Mr. Aamlid believes it would have been as well described as the twenty
other coins and medals of Thailand minted in 1824 - 1908 that he bought at the
same time. They include a copper pattern of the Rama III period, various gold
bahts, salungs and fuangs, silver bahts and tamlungs of the Rama IV period,
gold, silver and bronze medals of the Rama V period and a silver centennial
medal of the Chakri Dynasty, which was founded in 1782 by King Rama I. Upon
buying the medals and coins, Mr. Aamlid could learn only that they came from the
estate of the heirs of their original owner and had been in Europe for more than
90 years, since the turn of the century.
Mr. Aamlid hails from Norway, one of the countries that King Rama V visited in
1907, on his record trip of 235 days abroad. While there, on July 12, the King
visited the North Cape, the northernmost tip of the European continent. As he
wrote to Princess Nibha Nobhadol, his 21 year-old daughter, he commemorated the
event by drawing his monogram and the year on a stone. Workmen followed his
drawing to chisel it in, and he then photographed the result. In so doing, he
thought that if he had a horn, he would have performed the traditional royal
horn ceremony.
The horn ceremony was not performed in Norway. But it certainly must have been
when the medals were awarded to the winners of the 1870 contest. Sitting in his
office in Oslo, with the first-place gold medal in his hand, Mr. Aamlid can
close his eyes and imagine the tune. But who was it that stepped forward to
receive the medal from King Rama V? The honour is now verified, but the identity
of the person honoured remains an enigma.
|
|
 |
A Man for All Coins
Jan Olav Aamlid with 1876 Rama V silver
medal at lower right, Chakri Dynasty silver centennial medal at lower
left, 1870 Rama V gold medal just above it to right, and other medals
and coins recently purchased in Europe.
(photo by Frits Solvang, February 1997)
by Michael Brady
In 1987, as part of a cultural exhibition celebrating King
Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 60th birthday, various memorabilia from the travels
of Carl A. Bock, the 19th-century Norwegian explorer, were put on
display. Also on display was the world’s largest private collection of
the coins and medals of Thailand, amassed by one of Bock’s countrymen of
today, Jan Olav Aamlid. To date, that is the only time that the entire
collection has been on display, and Mr. Aamlid admits that it is now
larger.
For the man behind that record collection, records have become almost
routine. Born in 1953, he came to collecting at age ten when his
grandmother gave him a few old coins. That fired his interest. In 1967,
at age 14, he made his first major purchase, a Swedish coin minted in
the early 1900s. A decade later he was a successful coin dealer in Oslo,
and in 1979 he set his first international record at an auction in
Zürich, Switzerland, where he paid S.Fr. 882,000 for some six thousand
gold and silver coins retrieved from the wreck of the Akerendam, a Dutch
Java trading vessel that had sunk in 1795 off the coast of Norway. At
that time, the purchase was the largest ever of treasure retrieved from
a sunken ship and the largest ever of a single collection of coins.
Just eight years later, in 1987 at an auction in Singapore, he bought a
1918 Thai 1 tickal bank note with a 50 tickal overprint for $51,000, the
most ever paid for a bank note. And 17 months after that record, in June
1988, he paid $18 million for 100,484 Nordic gold coins minted between
1873 and 1926, and in so doing outdid himself by buying a yet more
valuable single collection of coins. Both transactions were listed in
the Guinness Book of Records.
Since then, he and Gunnar Thesen, his partner in the Oslo Mynthandel
(Oslo Coin House), have set numismatic records with clockwork precision
- the most valuable ancient Roman coin sold in Scandinavia, the most
valuable Norwegian coins ever sold, the most valuable Scandinavian coins
ever sold, the largest European coin auctions ever held outside central
Europe - they have lost count of the tally.
Though successful, Aamlid remains the schoolboy poring over coin
catalogues and books. Though he is now a leader in his trade, curiosity
is still his drive. That’s what brought him first to Bangkok, on the
buying trip that started his record collection of Thai coins and medals.
And that’s what prompted him to buy the 1870 gold medal awarded by King
Rama V. “It’s a beautiful medal,” he says, “and at 65 grams,
impressively large. But it’s more than just that; it embodies a history
yet to be unravelled. And that’s a challenge”.
|
|
|
