Identify year of coin: Thai coins
Determining the year of minting of a coin is an important aspect of the identification of your coin. For most countries this isn't hard, as it is written on the coin using the Gregorian or Western calendar. But when it comes, for instance, to Chinese, Japanese or Arab coins, this could be a more hazzardess job.
Therefore, I tried to make a tutorial (based on several websites and Wikipedia) how to read these years and how to translate them to the Gregorian calendar.
Therefore, I tried to make a tutorial (based on several websites and Wikipedia) how to read these years and how to translate them to the Gregorian calendar.
Thai Calendar
The Thai solar calendar starts with the year Gautama Buddha (the spiritual teacher and founder of Buddhism) died. This year is 545 B.C. on the western calendar. A new year used to start on April 1st, but due to a decrete of Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram this was moved to January 1st. A consequence of this action was that the year 2483 or 1940 was three months shorter.
To convert a Thai year to a western year just substract 543 years from the Thai year. All years prior to the decrete do not match a western year, so the calculation results in the year of the first nine months.
The year, as it appears on a coin, consists of two parts.
The first part are the letters: พ.ศ which is an abbreviation for คริสต์ศักราช meaning 'Buddhist era'.
The second part are in fact the numerals for the year:
To convert a Thai year to a western year just substract 543 years from the Thai year. All years prior to the decrete do not match a western year, so the calculation results in the year of the first nine months.
The year, as it appears on a coin, consists of two parts.
The first part are the letters: พ.ศ which is an abbreviation for คริสต์ศักราช meaning 'Buddhist era'.
The second part are in fact the numerals for the year:
๐ | ๑ | ๒ | ๓ | ๔ | ๕ | ๖ | ๗ | ๘ | ๙ |
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
For instance: The Thai year ๑๔๔๓ converted to the western calendar would be the year: 2554 - 543 = 2011.