Rian Phra Kaew Morakot

In the year B.E.2475, a royal ceremony was held to commemorate 150 years for the founding of Bangkok as the capital of Thailand. A batch of Phra Kaew (Emerald Buddha) medals was created to commemorate this important milestone in Thailand history.

The obverse of the medal depicted the image of a seated Emerald Buddha and the reverse was a Chakra (discus) with 8 alphabets representing the Buddha’s Eightfold Noble Path. There were a few manfucateres being commissioned to create the medals, which resulted in slightly different features among the medals but remain generally the same. There were many that were created without any inscription of the manufacterer’s origin and were classified as Block Tammada (ordinary mould).

Those with words inscribed at the back were considered Block Niyom (popular mould) but were valued differently based on the manufacterer:

There were a few materials created for this batch of medals, where gold and silver were the most valuable and rare. The common pieces were those made of nickel and copper. The size of the medals was 25mm in diameter. It took a total of 5 years between B.E.2470 to B.E.2475 when the then King of Thailand convened a council to plan for this event until B.E.2475 when the ceremony was completed.

A total of 43 greatest guru monks of that era were invited to bless and consecrate the medals at Wat Phra Sri Rattana Satsadaram (Wat Phra Kaew), including:

This batch of medals is considered as one of the best medals consecrated in Thailand history due to its historical signficance, its aesthetic value and also the participation of many living guru monks of that era.

This piece shown is Block Poh Chang which was manufactured by Poh Chang Academy of Arts, the 2nd most popular mould of this batch of Phra Kaew Morakot medals. It is made of Nur Ngern (silver) which is one of the rare materials and is a champion condition piece in its original mint condition.