Friday, September 10, 2021

Re-Christening Bhutan's Earliest Silver Coin

 Dear Mr. Bose,

Good Morning … I hope you are continuing to keep well and safe.

Regarding my yesterday's mail to which was attached a .pdf file about my views on the coinage of Bhutan’s earliest Maartams, I believe that I may have made a mistake regarding my views on Bhutan’s silver “Ma” Maartams. I feel that others may be right – that the silver “Ma” Maartam may indeed be Bhutanese. I came to this conclusion after realizing that I failed to look at the Maartam’s obverse where the Bhutanese numeral “1” is inscribed.

I took a careful re-look at the Maartam’s image and I find that if I consider the coins obverse, I can see a perfect Bhutanese number “1” inscribed inside the CHA. The number there is a perfect Bhutanese “1” - as written by the Bhutanese. It is no where close to how the Bengalis/Assamese would write. The Assamese/Bengali 1 is written completely differently - from how the Bhutanese write ours.


Bhutan's earliest silver coin



A comparative study of the Assamese/Bengali/Bhutanese number 1 and alphabet "Ma"

Finally, in my upcoming book I am going to rename the “Ma” Maartam as “Ma” Ngueltum. The reason is that "Ma" Maartam actually means red coin whereas “Ma” Ngueltum would translate to: “Ma” Silver Coin.

There is a term “Nyingtam” which means old coin. As the oldest coin, the “Ma” Ngueltam could also be called “Ma” Nyingtam but I think “Ma” Ngueltam would be more appropriate.

Bye and take care


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