Siamese Chinese Porcelain Gambling Token on Sterling Silver Necklace
Siamese/Chinese Porcelain Gambling Tokens (ca. 1820 - 1875) were used in Siam at Chinese-run gambling establishments also known as Chinese hongs. First, they were used as gambling counters, but later, those tokens were widely accepted as small currency exchange within their districts. The use of the tokens was eventually forbidden by Siam's King Rama V in 1875. Still, the tokens remained in circulation for a long period of time and were still used well into the 20th century. Many different shapes (round, hexagon, octagon, oval, rhomb, triangle, square, rectangular, fruits shapes, star, other shapes etc.), materials (porcelain, clay, glass, tin, lead, silver, brass, bronze, copper etc.) and varieties were made; perhaps as many as 8,000 to 10,000 different designs were issued.
Vintage Siamese Chinese porcelain Gambling Token with Chinese characters mounted in sterling silver on a sterling chain.
