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Greetings, all. This little (34 mm) piece turned up in my parents' long-stored boxes. Probably acquired from one of their far-traveling friends in the 1940s. Looks and feels like low-karat gold, but maybe base metal.

I will be giving it to younger relatives, and would like to know what it is to enhance their enjoyment. Can anyone please translate the inscription, identify the deity or bodhisattva (Avalokiteshvara, perhaps?), and/or identify the temple of which it seems to be a souvenir.

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

You have a Thai or Lao Buddha token meant for draping by a chain from the neck. It’s difficult to tell if it suffers from heavy wear or might be a secondary or tertiary casting. In either case, it has lost the details that might help say where it comes from. Only the script, which I can’t translate, might help pinpoint the place or identity of the Buddha. Any gold probably is superficial plate.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Many thanks for that, Bill. With your guidance, I put the same photo into Google Images, which now has an excellent translation function. It confirms your suggestion that the language is Thai - ครบ ๒๕๐๐ป, which renders as "completed 2500 years - right timing for the Buddha.

Better - isolating and enhancing the temple image with Photoshop, and putting that and the Thai text into Google Images "find source," led to this: www.surepra.com/show/1064307. Clearly the same medallion, apparently made of gold-plated copper alloy (you're right again!) and - in much better condition than mine - worth all of US$4. So I can give to it a young person without concern.

Thanks again!

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