Copper Peacock Varieties
Copper Peacock Coins are divided into 2 varieties on the SCWC catalogue, namely Km17 and Km18. In “The Coins and Banknotes of Burma”, there are 3 varieties A, B, C on the obverse side and 6 varieties 1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, and 3 on the reverse side, which are combined into a wide variety of types. In “The Die Varieties of 19th Century Burmese Copper Coins”, the obverse side variety A is subdivided into A1 and A2, C is divided into C1-7, and the reverse side variety 1 is added with two types 1d and 1e, and 2 is divided into 2a-f. It can be known that there are many varieties of copper peacock coins.
| Image | SCWC | The Coins and Banknotes of Burma Obverse side | Number of Feather “Y” | Number of Coins Found with Detailed Content |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Km17 | A | 12 | 27 |
 |
Km18 | C | 14 | 154 |
 |
- | B | 18 | 211 |
As the book’s authors Robinson and Shaw only had one variety B and it was badly worn at the time of writing, it was mistakenly recorded as 14 “Y” feathers in the book. After many careful identification, I found it is actually 18. In the 1986 update, it is wrongly classified as a new type in variety A, and listed it as the A3 variety.
The main difference of A1 and A2 is that A1 has two dots on the letter at the 11 o’clock position. The picture is as follows:
| Category | A1 | A2 |
|---|---|---|
| Quantity ratio | 2 | 25 |
| Picture |  |
 |
As for the difference between C1-C7, I personally feel that the variation is relatively small and will not be discussed.
On the reverse side, the main difference is whether there are stars at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock, and there are many detailed variations in other aspects.
| Image | SCWC | The Coins and Banknotes of Burma Front Version | The Coins and Banknotes of Burma Back Version | Number of Stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Km17 | A | 1 | 2 (0) |
 |
Km18 | C | 2 | 0 |
 |
- | B | 3 | 0 |
Km17 (the obverse side is the A variety), the exact sample without stars on the reverse side is not found in the data base. There is only one suspected, but it may be from two different coins. In “The Die Varieties of 19th Century Burmese Copper Coins”, two are recorded, from the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum. The obverse side variety B only matched with the reverse side variety 3, variety 3 and 2 are similar, the variety 3 is rougher, it is possible that B/3 is privately struck.
All in all, not counting the sub-variety, the obverse and reverse side varieties counted by the quantity:
C/2 > A/1 > B/3 > A/2(?)
A/1 contains subvarieties A1/1 and A2/1.
Precautions:
- Many copper peacock coins are severely worn, and it is inevitable to misread the details, which is highly subjective.
- There are many subtle differences in copper peacock coins, and this article only discussed the large differences.
- The data collection focuses on the good grade detailed coins, and it is a major deviation from the actual fact.
-
The quantity is the total found quantity, including the poor grades. ↩︎