THAI NUMISMATIST LEE SHIN SONG

I received an email from Ronachai Krisadaolarn Thursday morning, March 1, that Mr. Lee (Lee Shin Song) had passed today in Bangkok. He had been fighting liver cancer for at least a year and I thought he had conquered it until I started receiving emails a few weeks ago that he was going back in and out of a hospital for treatments. Mr. Lee will be greatly missed by numismatists worldwide and he is a great loss to Thai numismatics.

I first met him sometime in the mid-1960s when I was in Bangkok working on a back-up site for my intelligence unit's magnetic tapes from Viet Nam. I quickly found a home for them in the JUSMAG (Joint Military United States Military Assistance Group) Compound and then I had a couple of days to wander around Bangkok. My first action in a new city is to look in the Yellow Pages for coin and stamp businesses. I eventually walked into the Lee Kim Guan (his father's name) store on Silom Road. One wall was completely covered from floor to ceiling with shelves full of Southeast Asian paper money in bricks and packs! It was an impressive sight! I sat down at a counter and was shown coins, tokens and paper money for sale. There were also philatelic items, books and antiques. It took a couple of years for him and the staff to consider me a serious collector of Thai numismatic pieces. After that, I was shown and offered the really good stuff.

When I was in the shop for the last time during the Vietnam War in late 1972, I told Mr. Lee that I would bring back my Thai collection when I no longer needed or wanted it. I did bring back my paper money collection a few years ago and then my coin and token collection. The image of Mr. Lee shows him at a desk with the boxes of my coin and token collection that I just delivered, and a Thai collector, Arthasith Katanyutanon, already looking through it to tell Mr. Lee which pieces he would like to purchase. I was told many collectors came to the store to see each collection and they were completely sold in about ten days.

Whenever I was in his store, he always invited me and other serious collectors and dealers into his office. He would have stacks, boxes and albums of pieces all over the place. It was always a thrill for me to "dig" through it and find something for my one of my collections. I would also find pieces in his case in the lobby, especially old Burmese Mon lead/tin/copper coins which I bought in quantity to find varieties.

His son, Kris Sukonritikorn, will hopefully and likely direct the business. It is located at 1142 Charoenbrung Road (the old New Road near the General Post Office), Bangkok 10501.

I am really sad for Mr. Lee's family because it is plain to see they are very close and loved each other. My trips to Bangkok will never be the same without Mr. Lee.

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