RECOMMENDATIONS

There is a common misconception by new collectors that only old amulets or amulets made by popular monks are good, this is not true. All amulets are generally good, the monks put in efforts into creating and consecrating them. Even if an amulet is not consecrated, if it bears the image of Buddha, you must respect it.

There thousands of types of amulets, popular amulets numbers to a approximately few hundred types. A glance through competition catalogue books will reveal what are the popular amulets and pieces. Top of the range items are often not easy to collect nor advisable to collect them without adequate experience, the reason is pretty apparent.

POPULAR AMULETS OF OLDER PERIOD AND DECADES

In general, older amulets with popular market demand are harder to collect and identify their authencity due to circulation of imitation pieces, some of these are: Cached ancient Nur Din/terracotta and Nur Chin/metal alloy votive amulets with centuries of age. Older period of Loop Meun/miniature statue amulets, usually Loop Meun made before BE2500. Popular Nur Phong amulets of older periods. Rian/medal amulets of older periods, as a general guideline, Rians made before BE2500 are harder to collect. And also the first batch of amulets and the top-ranged amulets of individual popular monks. These are personal opinions of mine, not meant to discourage but rather to highlight an area which should be noted with caution when purchasing these amulets.

POPULAR AMULETS RECENT DECADES

Oftenly, one will see certain amulets, oftenly new amulets, being advertised by dealers, if one keep tracks of the market for sometime, one may observe that every now and then, there a sudden trend of popularity in a certain amulet will arise, and a sudden difference in price every now and then. These might due to several reasons, a common cause is the passing away of a well known monk, or a very good monk making his first batch of amulets for his temple. A dealer or a group of dealers may suddenly release a particular amulet hoarded in store years back and promote them at high prices with with heavy advertising. Oftenly these trends are like passing rain clouds. There are however some amulets that are always in demand, always popular and collected by collectors, such as the examples mentioned above and the next paragraph. Twenty years back collectors were collecting these amulets, ten years later they still were, till this date they still are, and in future decades, these are amulets will still be ones collected.

The following are some of them (alphabetical order of name):

• Amulets of Luang Phor Kasem Khemako, Lampang
• Amulets of Archarn Nong Thammabhuto, Wat Saikhao, Pattani
• Amulets of Dhan Chao Khun Nor Norata, Wat Thepsurin, Bangkok
• Amulets of Luang Phor Pae, Wat Pikhunthong, Singhaburi
• Amulets of Luang Phor Prom, Wat Chongkae, Nakhonsawan
• Amulets of Luang Phoo Tim Issaro, Wat Lai Hanrai, Rayong
• Amulets of Archarn Tim Thammadharo, Wat Changhai, Pattani
• Amulets of Luang Phoo Toh Indalasuwannoe, Wat Pradoochimphi, Bangkok
• Amulets of Luang Phoo Waen Sujinoh, Wat Doi Mae Phung, Chiengmai

Popular amulets created in recent decades by temples (alphabetical order of name):

• Wat Bangkhunprom (Mai Amataros/Indraviharn), Bangkok
• Wat Changhai Rajburanaram, Pattani
• Wat Paknam, Bangkok
• Wat Prasat Bunyawas, Bangkok
• Wat Rakang Kositaram, Bangkok
• Wat Suthat Thep Wararam, Bangkok

There are much more, many more indeed. There are also many popular amulets by monks of earlier periods, however to a collector outside Thailand, the amulets of these above mentioned monks and temples are easier to collect and identify and also generally better known to collectors outside Thailand. These are the recommended amulets to start with, and they are nevertheless as equally popular as amulets of older periods of decade because of their lower price and better information, therefore imitations pieces are equally, if not much more numerous.

REMADE BATCHES AND LATE BATCHES

It is not uncommon for the laymen to make new batches of amulets or remake popular batches of amulets of a monk, in years or decades later for the particular monk to consecrate when he is very advanced in age. This are considered new batches of amulets are considered late batches by collectors. Remade batches and late batches are usually not popular and seldom collected by collectors. Oftenly, amulets made during this period of time are usually not collected because in collectors's views, the original batch or the first few batchs are preferred rather than these late batches of amulets.

This rise the questions on why some amulets cost only a few Bahts and why some amulets cost a few thousand times more. This is because of market demands by the Thai amulet market, it is the market demand set by Thai amulets collectors that influence the value of an amulet on amulet collecters' market. Thai Buddhist amulets collectors generally prefers to collect the first few batches of amulets made by a monk or temple, thus causing market demands and therefore the higher price and value on the market, the practise of collecting only the first few batches is especially common if a particular monk have a long history of making amulets and had made many batches of amulets, thus the earlier batches are popular because of rarity. However if a particular monk only made a few batches of amulets, almost all batches are popular with the collector.

NEW AMULETS

New amulets refers to Thai Buddhist amulets made in recent years, generally at this point of time when this article is written, perhaps most collectors will rate amulets created from BE2530 and later as new amulets. Most collectors starts from collecting new amulets, and perhaps some collectors might still collects new amulets after they had moved on to collecting old ones. New amulets provides better assurance of authencity and they are often not expensive. However choose wisely on which new amulets to collect, whether a new amulet made in recent years is collectable will depends on several factors.

For instance, if a particular popular monk made amulets from BE2500 to BE2540, his later batches of amulets made after BE2530 might not be much sought for by collectors. Oftenly, collectors are only interested in the first few batches. In another instance, if another particular popular monk of our current period just started making amulets recently from BE2530 or even from BE2540, these amulets are in fact sought for by collectors, simply because these amulets belong to the first few batches. In both instances, both amulets are made after BE2530 and are generally considered new by collectors, however in the former case, the amulets are of later batches, in the latter case, the amulets are of the earlier batches.

New collectors sometimes select new amulets based on the popularity of the monk creating them, choosing remade batches or later batches of amulets made by monks of older period, not taking into account that these amulets are of the later batches or remade batches.