Sa Maartang - NOT Pice

Dear Mr. Bose,

Thank you for your e-mail. Even more, THANK YOU for the privilege and honor to be of help to a person of your standing.

I am happy to return herewith the image of your modern Bhutanese machine struck coin. As desired, I have named each of the motifs on the coin, in Bhutanese - including their Western equivalent.

NOTE:

The coin image you sent me is, what I prefer to call, the machine struck “SA MAARTANG” - not to be confused with the hammered “Sa Maartang” of the past. Most erroneously, Western writers/historians/collectors have chosen to call this particular coin: “Pice”, which is incorrect. Thus, as an act of reclaiming its ownership and giving it its rightful nationality, I am renaming it “Sa Maartang” - for three reasons:

1. It has the Bhutanese “Sa” alphabet inscribed on its Obverse,

2. The metal used is “Red” colored copper, and

3. “Tang” – meaning coin or Tanka. “Pice” is not a Bhutanese term - it is Indian.

The combination of the three words translate to:

Sa+Maar+Tang = Sa+Red+Coin = Sa Maartang

As you would know, the coin was milled at the Government of India Mint, Calcutta in the Bhutanese “Iron Tiger Year” (1950), at the same time our first Cupro-nickel Tikchang or Thala was struck in the same mint.

Although the word inscribed in Bhutanese script on the reverse of the Thala/Tikchang reads “Jatam”, I prefer to call it “Jatang”. The reason should be obvious to you - the term “Tang” is a derivative of the ancient word “Tangka” used by the Koch and other Indian people to describe your coins. As you already know, the Koch Kingdom’s Narayani was also used extensively as legal tender in Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet, among other countries in the region. In later years when Nepal and Tibet started to hammer their own coins, both of them called their coins “Tangka/Tanka”, among others. As you are aware, Bhutanese coins trace their origins to the Koch Narayani - in fact some of our coins were exact replicas of the Narayani because they were hammered with dies supposedly carried away forcibly from Cooch Behar. Thus our coins too came to be called Maartang, Ngueltang, Zangtang, Sertang etc..

As explained by you to me, and following the accepted convention, and as a mark of obeisance to our monarchy and the Kings, I am designating all our modern machine struck coins with the bust of our Kings as the OBVERSE side of the coin, and the other side as the REVERSE. Thus, arising out of this concept, and seeing that all the motifs on one side of your “Sa Maartang” are the exact same motifs on the REVERSE of the Thala/Tikchang, I am designating that side of the Sa Maartang as the REVERSE of the coin.

No doubt you know that the same “Sa Maartang” was reissued in 1954 with exactly the same motifs. However, this time the coin’s die was re-cut, resulting in sharper and better defined impressions of the motifs.

I hope you have a copy of the 1954 Sa Maartang - if you do not, it would be my honor to present you with a copy from my collection. They are abundantly available in Bhutan, although no longer used as legal tender.

Please let me know if you have any contrarian views on the matter - it would be my honor to consider them.

Bye and take care ---- please continue to keep well and safe so that I may continue to draw upon your vast and unmatched knowledge on the subject of coins of the Himalayan region.