Earliest of Bhutan's Milled Coins: "Sa Zungtang" of 1950 & 1955

There are whole lot of confusion among numismatists/historians/writers/coin dealers – particularly concerning our modern, machine milled "Sa Zungtang" of which 260,000 pieces were for the first time milled during the reign of Drukgyel Nyipa, in the year 1950. Then, in 1955, during the reign our Drukgyel Soompa, additionl 1,000,000 pieces of the same coins were minted. These official minting records are available with The Royal Mint Museum, Llantrisant, Wales, United Kingdom.

The first release of 260,000 coins in 1950 were called “Zungtong” – presumably because of the color of metal that was used in its production - Bronze.

The second release of 1,000,000 pcs. in 1955 were named “Pice” (I am clueless as to why, of all the names available that could have been used, it was called Pice) – the metal used was the same – Bronze.

Most foreigners – including 99.999% of the Bhutanese - are not aware that although the two issues of the coins look exactly the same – there are a number of differences in the coins – in particular on the Reverse of the coin that is imprinted with the Bhutanese alphabet "Sa", which is why I call it the "Sa Zungtang":

The differences are in the following:

          The Handle of the Bumpa (Lota)

          The Eye of the Ser Nya

          The Spire of the Doongkar

The coin versions issued in 1955 have sharper and better-defined engravings of the above three. Look minutely at the handle of the Bumpa – you will notice that it is looped – whereas in the 1950 issue it is solid. Additionally, the Eye of the Ser Nya and the Spire of the Doongkar are better defined in the 1955 versions.

ENJOY!! Careful that you do not strain your eyes too much though 😜!