PYA: COIN OF BURMA (MYANMAR)
25 pya, 1956: Union of Burma
Myanmar is a large country in Southeast Asia, bordering Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. Official modern name — Republic of the Union of Myanmar. However, until 1989, the state was known in the world as Burma.
၂၅: 25.
ပြား: pya.
၁၉၅၆: 1956.
The denomination of the coin and the date are inside the floral ornament.
ပြည်ထောင်စု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်: Union of Burma.
Chinte seated: a fantastic lion-dragon (another version: mythical half-lion/half-deer) whose statue in medieval Burma was placed in front of temple entrances to ward off evil spirits.
သက္ကရာဇ်၁၃၂၈ခုနှစ်: year 1328 (date according to Burmese Era, BE).
Two stars.
Scalloped coin shape.
Mintage: 14.000.000.
- Copper-nickel: 24 mm - 6.82 g
- Reference price: 1.6$
COIN PYA — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- MYANMAR (1868-...) — Burmese Empire + Union of Burma + Union of Myanmar: pya = 1/80 kyat (since 1952 — 1/100 kyat)
PYA as coin name.
Pya (Burmese "တပြား") — currency and coin originally of Burma, and after the renaming of the state in 1989, Myanmar.
Formally, 100 pya are equal to 1 kyat, but exchangeable coins have been withdrawn from circulation — only kyat of different denominations remain.
Pya coins have been issued since 1868. Initially, the following ratio existed: 4 pya = 1 pe; 2 pe = 1 mu; 2 mu = 1 mat; 5 mat = 1 kyat. That is, the pya served as the Burmese coin of the lowest value. Later, for more than half a century, the issue of this Burmese coin was suspended.
Only in 1949, the minting of Burmese coins was resumed, a new series of pya and pe of 1949-1951 appeared.
In 1952, a monetary reform was carried out, the decimal system was introduced: 1 kyat became equal to 100 pya. In 1989, new coins appeared in circulation — no longer Burmese, but Myanmar pya and kyat — the state returned to its national name, since the name "Burma" was imposed at the time due to borders of the country and referred to the colonial past.
The name of the pya coin is derived from the Sanskrit term "पाद", which translates as "quarter" (the Indian coin payalo has the same etymology).
