Also 8 tecul(l, tecal(l, teecall, 9 tickal, tycal, takel, tackal(l. [Representing, through Pg. ticāl, the Indian ṭaṅkā, also ṭakā: see TANGA. Carried in 16th c. to Siam by the Portuguese; later to Burma. (See Sir R. C. Temple, in Indian Antiquary, XXVIII. 235, 253.)] A term long in use by foreign traders in Siam and more recently in Burma, applied to a silver coin and its weight, representing roughly the Indian rupee (orig. the same as the ṭaṅkā), which has varied in value according to time and place from 2s. 6d. to 1s. 2d., and in weight from more than to less than half an ounce Troy. (Sir R. C. Temple.) Also attrib.
In Siam, according to Crawfurd, a weight = 2251/2 grs. (according to Simmonds = 236 grs.); also a silver coin of this weight, the value of which has fallen with that of silver. In Burma, a weight = 255.6 grains, the quasi-standard weight of current (uncoined) silver, said to be equivalent in value to about 1 rupee.
1662. J. Davies, trans. Mandelslo’s Trav., 130. The money of this Country [Siam] is very good…; there are of it three sorts; Ticals, Mases, and Foangs.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. xlvii. 164. Some were of pure Gold, others of Tecul Silver, which has no Alloy in it.
1800. Misc. Tracts, in Asiatic Ann. Reg., 317/2. The cost of sinking a new well is 2000 tecals flowered silver of the country, or 2509 sicca rupees.
1840. Malcom, Trav., 41/1. They sometimes have a gold fuang, equal to eight ticals. The tical, assayed at the mint of Calcutta, yielded about one rupee three and a half annas, equal to 2s. 6d. sterling.
1858. T. Dalton, in Merc. Marine Mag., V. 337. Last year the same rice sold for 19 ticals (equal to 60 cents each tical, or 2s. 6d. sterling).
1902. Daily Chron., 1 Dec., 5/7. A dispatch from Bangkok … says:—‘The Siamese Government has issued a decree fixing the gold standard on the basis of seventeen ticals to the pound.’
1907. Motor Boat, 19 Sept., 179/1. American two-stroke motors … used to arrive in batches valued at 1,200 ticals each (1 tical = 1s. 53/4 d.).
