lars to the mint and the officers there heat them red-hot to detect counterfeits, and if genuine, ticals are given in exchange. This law makes the par value of the tical sixty cents of a dollar, the salung fifteen and the fuang eight and a half cents, the tamlu'ng $2.40, the chang $48.00, the hahp $2,400 and the p'arah $240,000.
Previous to and during a portion of the reign of the late king the small change of the country consisted of sea-shells, known as the cowrie, and designated by the natives as the bi'ah; the purchasing power of the bi'ah was about fifteen hundred to the fuang or eight cents, notwithstanding the government attempted to fix their value at 800 for a fuang. At that time the coins were all round, almost bullet-shaped, millions of which are still in circulation, but the King improved the appearance of the coin by having it struck similar to that of other nations, instead of the round bullets, with two small stamps on them. The coins now issued have the profile of the King on them and are really pretty, showing that the Siamese are abandoning some of their old prejudices, one of which was that no one should make the profile of His Majesty for general circulation, as it was considered a gross violation of Siamese etiquette should it be multiplied and sold as foreign pictures were. The silver coins are the standard of weight in the lower provinces, the rupee in the Laos states. Occasionally one of the gold pieces can be purchased, but they are rare and bring large prices by coin collectors, being regarded as curiosities. There are a large number of counterfeits in circulation among the bullet-shaped coin, owing to the fact that a number of years ago the master of the mint, unknown to the King, manufactured an immense number of copper ticals, and
