Every society around the world has their own versions of currency purses and pouches in which to carry around their money. Not to be outdone, we Bhutanese too had our version of coin pouches - handcrafted leather pouches with draw strings!
Sangey Wangchuk of Dumra Farm Resort, Punakha, gifted me the following ancient leather coin pouch. It cannot be said with any degree of certainty what kind of coins may have been carried around in this antique pouch. But no doubt if it had belonged to a rich or powerful Bhutanese, the pouch may have held coins from Assam, Bhutan, British East India Company, China, Cooch Behar, Crown British India, French East India Company, Nepal, Tibet, etc. Coins from all these countries were current in Bhutan those ancient times.
Bhutan's own handcrafted leather coin pouch. The pouch could have carried some of the coins mentioned in the image - but not likely the machine milled "SA Maartangs" of 1950 & 1955 because by then we may have moved on to modern, tailored purses.
According to available records, people of present day Chhukha Dzongkhag may be among the earliest Bhutanese who possessed coins. Written records confirm that during the visit of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel to Chapcha in 1619, a rich resident of Chapcha, including the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, had offered him thousands of silver coins.
However, it is doubtful that the Zhabdrung would have used such a leather pouch to store the coins he received as offering. The reason is that it is said that all the silver coins he received from the trip were melted down – to build a silver reliquary for his deceased father which was then housed inside Tango Monastery.
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