HOWARD DANIEL ON LAO COINS AND BANKNOTES

1968 Pathet Lao CIA Propaganda leaflet

My interest in Lao began in 1964 when I was in the Army and stationed on Okinawa. An Air Force NCO, John Novak, talked me into collecting and writing about Southeast Asia numismatics. It took him awhile to convince me but I quickly dug into the area and disposed of my US coins and paper money.

I was stationed in Southeast Asia from January 1966 to August 1970, and again in December 1971 to January 1973. I worked mostly within several intelligence activities and my backup site was in the JUSMAG Compound in Bangkok. Most of my numismatic time during those years was in Bangkok.

I was very lucky to find the Lee Kim Guan shop in that city. It sold numismatic and philatelic pieces, and some catalogs. The first few times I was in the shop they could see from my haircut, I was just a GI on R&R and not a serious numismatist. Eventually, they did consider me a serious collector and researcher.

At that time, they had often hundreds of particular pieces for sale and I could go through bags of coins and stacks of notes looking for pieces to add to my research collection. As the years have gone by to today, the stacks and bags are gone and most pieces available are singles to only two or three of a piece.

I did not know exactly what I owned until after the war. I had been mailing everything to my mother in Florida via registered mail from embassy APOs in Southeast Asia, and elsewhere in the world, for about fifteen years. When I came back to the USA in 1973, I saw everything I owned for the first time.

I sorted down the pieces into each country and started cataloging them. When I saw that I had enough pieces and information in a particular series, I started writing for the numismatic press and club and society journals. Then I started writing my catalogs.

My Lao Coins & Currency catalog is my seventh catalog and I am now working on my eighth, which is the second edition of my Democratic Republic of Viet Nam Coins & Currency. It will be followed by the second edition of my Republic of Viet Nam Coins & Currency catalog. I am now publishing one catalog per year.

If you ever come across a Lao piece that you want identified and/or authenticated, please send a photocopy to me at P.O. Box 626, Dunn Loring, VA 22027 or a scan at HADaniel3@msn.com. Never send the piece to me unless I request it.

To read the complete issue, see: The Nor'Wester Third Quarter 2014 July-August-September (www.pnna.org/news/pdf/PNNAnews2014_Q3.pdf)

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