'Lucky Charm' Making Factory in Bangkok

On a trip out to Bangkok we were invited back to a friend of a friend’s house for some lunch. Next to her house, our friend of a friend helps to run a coin ‘printing’ factory, producing coins stamped with a Buddhist image thought to bring good luck.

The coins, once created, are quite versatile, sometimes turned into necklaces, or just used as lucky charms. The coins are distributed around participating Thai temples, who bless them, and then are given to the monks who hand them to temple-goers as tokens of appreciation and good luck.

The machines used in the process are huge, and pretty fearsome. On the larger machines, the Thai operators sit at their base, feeding in circular copper templates, upon which the machines 'clunk' down on top of, to forever imprint the lucky image on the copper face.

Although the operators have total control of the machines (they use their left feet to push a peddle, which brings the shaft of the machine downwards) I dread to think what can happen to fingers and thumbs should one of the operators suffer a momentary lapse of concentration.

The fastest of the operators were feeding the bronze templates into the machines at a serious pace; the serial 'clunking' forming a near steady rhythm. Despite my general nosiness, none of the workers paid me the slightest bit of attention; leading me to conclude the little factory receives many visitors, or that these guys are just very good at safe guarding their fingers....

Comments

[Catherine]

'The coins are distributed around participating Thai temples, who bless them, and then are given to the monks who hand them to temple-goers as tokens of appreciation and good luck.'

Curious. And a good thing they are taking care :-)

So the coins are sold to the temples? Or sold to people who donate them to the temples?

[The Thai Pirate]

Hi Catherine, not too sure about the financial ins and outs, but they are very large machines, so unless somebody is incredibly philanthropic, money in generated somewhere!

[Talen]

I've seen these coins at Wat Phra That Phanome. I don't know if they buy them but they were being sold at the Wat for 20 baht.

Gotta love the picture of the man stamping them out. Bare feet and shorts...anywhere else and the place would be shut down due to safety violations.

[The Thai Pirate]

You're right Talen, says it all! God Bless Thailand!