Vietnamese cash

Last Vietnamese cash:
Bảo Đại Thông Bảo (保大通寶)
Bảo Đại (1925–1945)

Vietnamese cash (Vietnamese: văn; Hán tự: 文; French: Sapèque) is a cast round coin with a square hole that circulated in Vietnam from the Đinh dynasty in 968 until the Nguyễn dynasty in 1945. The same type of currency circulated in China, Japan, Korea, and Ryūkyū for centuries. Though the majority of Vietnamese cash coins throughout history were copper coins, lead, iron (from 1528) and zinc (from 1740) coins also circulated alongside them often at fluctuating rates (with 1 copper cash being worth 10 zinc cash in 1882).^[1] The reason why coins made from metals of lower intrinsic value were introduced was because of various superstitions involving Vietnamese people burying cash coins, as the problem of people burying cash coins became too much for the government as almost all coins issued by government mints tended to be burried mere months after they had entered circulation, the Vietnamese government began issuing coins made from an alloy of zinc, lead, and tin. As these cash coins tended to be very fragile they would decompose faster if burried which caused the Vietnamese people to stop burying their coins.^[2][3]

History

Various Lý dynasty cash coins on display at the National Museum of Vietnamese History, Hanoi.

The first Vietnamese coins were cast under the rule of the Đinh Dynasty (968–981) with the introduction of the Thái Bình Hưng Bảo (太平興寶) under Đinh Bộ Lĩnh. Though for the next 2 centuries coins would remain a rarity in the daily lives of the common people as barter would remain the dominant means of exchange under both the Đinh and Early Lê dynasties.^[4]

Generally cast coins produced by the Vietnamese from the reign of Lý Thái Tông and onwards were of diminutive quality compared to the Chinese variants,^[5] they were often produced with inferior metallic compositions and made to be thinner and lighter than the Chinese wén due to a severe lack of copper that existed during the Lý dynasty. This inspired Chinese traders to recast Chinese coins for export to Vietnam which caused an abundance of coinage to circulate in the country prompting the Lý government to suspend the mintage of coins for 5 decades.

The production of inferior coinage continued under the Trần dynasty. It was under the reign of Trần Dụ Tông that the most cash coins were cast of this period, this was because of several calamities such as failed crops that plagued the country during his reign that caused the Trần government to issue more coins to the populace as compensation. The internal political struggles of the Trần ensured the cessation of the production of coinage and as such no coins were produced during the entire reigns of the last 7 monarchs of the Trần dynasty.

A Thông Bảo Hội Sao (通寶會鈔) banknote.

During the Hồ dynasty the usage of coins was banned by Hồ Quý Ly in 1396 in favour of the Thông Bảo Hội Sao (通寶會鈔) banknote series and ordered people to exchange their coinage for these banknotes (with an exchange rate of 1 Quân of copper coins for 2 Thông Bảo Hội Sao banknotes), those who denied to exchange or continued to pay with coins would be executed and have their possessions taken by the government. Despite these harsh laws very few people actually preferred paper money and coins remained widespread in circulation forcing the Hồ dynasty to retract their policies.^[6][7][8] The Thông Bảo Hội Sao banknotes of the Hồ dynasty featured designs with seaweed, patterns of waves, clouds, and turtles on them.^[9] Under the Hồ dynasty Thánh Nguyên Thông Bảo (聖元通寶), and Thiệu Nguyên Thông Bảo (紹元通寶) but they would only be manufactured in small numbers, though the Later Lê dynasty would produce coins with the same inscriptions less than half a century later in larger quantities.^[10][11]

After Lê Thái Tổ came to power in 1428 by ousting out the Ming dynasty ending the Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam, Lê Thái Tổ enacted new policies to improve the quality of the manufacturing of coinage leading to the production of coins with both excellent craftsmanship and metal compositions that rivaled that of the best contemporary Chinese coinage.^[12]

Between 1633 and 1637 the Dutch East India Company sold 105,835 strings of 960 cash coins (or 101,600,640 văn) to the Nguyễn lords in Vĩnh Lạc Thông Bảo (永樂通寶), and Khoan Vĩnh Thông Bảo (寬永通寶) coins. This was because the Japanese had restricted trade forcing the Southern Vietnamese traders to purchase its copper coins from the Dutch Republic rather than from Japanese merchants as had happened earlier. This trade lead to a surplus of copper in the territory of the Nguyễn lords allowing them to use the metal (which at the time was scarce in the north) for more practical applications such as nails and door hinges.^[13][14][15] After this Nagasaki trade coins which were specifically minted for the Vietnamese market, also started being traded and to circulate in the northern parts of Vietnam where the smaller coins would often be melted down for utensils and only circulated in Hanoi while larger Nagasaki trade coins circulated all over Vietnam.

From the Dương Hòa era (1635–1643) under Lê Thần Tông until 1675 no coins were cast due to the political turmoil, at the turn of the 18th century Lê Dụ Tông opened a lot of copper mines and renewed the production of high quality coinage. From 1719 the production of cast copper coins had ceased for 2 decades and taxes were more heavily lifted on the Chinese population as Mandarins could receive a promotion in rank for every 600 strings of cash (or 600,000 coins). Under Lê Hiển Tông a large variety of “Cảnh Hưng” (景興) coins were cast with varying descriptions on the obverse,^[16] in fact it is thought that more variations of the “Cảnh Hưng” coin exist than of any other Oriental cash coin in history.^[17] And there were new large Cảnh Hưng coins with denominations of 50 and 100 văn introduced. And from 1740 various provincial mint marks were added on the reverses of coins. Currently there are around 80 known different kinds of “Cảnh Hưng” coins, the reason for this diversity is because the Lê government was in dire need for coins to pay for its expenditures, while it needed to collect more taxes in coins so it began to mint a lot of coins, later to fulfill this need the Lê legalised the previously detrimental workshops that were minting inferior coins in 1760 in order to meet the market’s high demand for coinage, this backfired as the people found the huge variety in quality and quantity confusing.^[18]

Under Nguyễn Nhạc the description of Thất Phân (七分) was first added to the reverses of some coins indicating their weight, this continued under the Nguyễn dynasty. Under Gia Long three kinds of cash coins were produced in smaller denominations made of copper, lead, and zinc. From 1837 under the reign of Minh Mạng 1 Mạch brass cash coins were issued, these coins feature Minh Mạng Thông Bảo (明命通寶) on their obverses but have 8 characters on their reverses. 1 Mạch coins would be continued under subsequent rulers of the Nguyễn dynasty.

Copper, and zinc cash coins issued under the reign of Gia Long.

”Tự Đức Thông Bảo” (嗣德通寶) coins of varying denominations, on display at the Museum of Vietnamese History, Ho Chi Minh City.

Since the reign of Gia Long zinc coins had replaced the usage of copper and brass coins and formed the basis of the Vietnamese currency system. Under Gia Long the standard 1 văn denomination coins weighed 7 phần, under Minh Mạng 6 phần (approximately 2,28 Grams) which would remain the standard for future rulers. Zinc cash coins produced in Hanoi under Tự Đức had the mint mark “Hà Nội” (何內) on them, with there being another mint in Sơn Tây (山西).

However in 1871 the production of zinc cash coins stopped as many mines were being blocked by Chinese pirates, and the continued production of these coins would be too expensive. Other reasons for the discontinuation of zinc cash coins despite them being indispensable to the general populace was because they were heavy compared to its nominal value and the metal is quite brittle. To the French zinc coinage also presented a huge in inconvenience since their colonisation of Cochinchina in 1859 as the exchange between French francs and zinc văn meant that a large amount of zinc coins were exchanged for the French franc. Zinc cash coins often broke during transportation as the strings that kept them together would often snap the coins would fall on the ground and a great number of them would break into pieces, and these coins were also less resistant to oxidation causing them to corrode faster than other coinages.

Prior to 1849 brass coins had become an extreme rarity and only circulated in the provinces surrounding the capital cities of Vietnam, but under Tự Đức new regulations and (uniform) standards for copper cash coins were created to help promote their usage. Between 1868 and 1872 brass coins were only around 50% copper, and 50% zinc. Due to the natural scarcity of copper in Vietnam the country always lacked the resources to produce sufficient copper coinage for circulation.^[19]

Under Tự Đức large coins with the denomination of 60 văn were introduced, these coins were ordered to circulate at a value of 1 tiền, but their intrinsic value was significantly lower so they were badly received and the production of these coins was quickly discontinued in favour of 20, 30, 40, and 50 văn coins known as Đồng Sao. Large denomination coins were mostly used for tax collection as their relatively low intrinsic value lowered their spending power on the market.

In 1882 at the time when Toda's Annam and its minor currency was published only 2 government mints remained in operation, one in Hanoi, and one in Huế. Though private mints were allowed to cast cash coins with the permission of the government, and a large number of cash coins were also imported from abroad as at that time the Portuguese colony of Macau had 6 mints with 12 furnaces producing 600,000 cash coins for Vietnam on a daily basis.^[1]

Cash coins circulated in the 19th century along with silver and gold bars, as well as silver and gold coins known as tiền. Denominations up to 10 tiền were minted, with the 7 tiền coins in gold and silver being similar in size and weight to the Spanish 8 real and 8 escudo pieces. These coins continued to be minted into the 20th century, albeit increasingly supplanted by French colonial coinage.

After the introduction of modern coinage by the French in 1878, cash coins remained in circulation until 1945 and were valued at the rates of about 500–600 cash for one piastre.

The last king whose name was cast on cash coins, Emperor Bảo Đại, died in 1997.

Machine-struck cash

There were several efforts by French administration to produce machine-struck cash (sapèque):

• 
  French Cochinchina
  1/1000 Piastre 1878
  copper
• 
  French Cochinchina
  1/500 Piastre 1879
  copper
• 
  French Indochina
  1/500 Piastre 1902
  copper
• 
  French protectorate of Tonkin
  1/600 Piastre 1905
  zinc
• 
  Khải Định Thông Bảo 啟定通寶 (1916–1925)
  Cast (left) and Machine-struck (right) coins

Flying dragon. Phi long (coin) of Khai Dinh

Emperors Khải Định (1916–1925) and Bảo Đại (1925–1945) produced both cast and machine-struck cash.

List of Vietnamese cash coins

Most Vietnamese cash coins tend to be read top-botton-right-left, but variants exist where the characters are read clockwise.

A "Càn Long Thông Bảo" (乾隆通寶) cast specifically for Chinese soldiers deployed to "Annam" (安南).

During the almost 1000 years that Vietnamese copper cash coins were produced they often significantly changed quality, alloy, size, and workmanship, in general the coins bear the era name(s) of the monarch (Niên hiệu/年號) but may also be inscribed with mint marks, denominations, miscellaneous characters, and decoration.

Unlike Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Ryūkyūan cash coins that always have the inscription in only one typeface, Vietnamese cash coins tend to be more idiosyncratic bearing sometimes Regular script, Seal script, and even Running script on the same coins for different characters, and it's not uncommon for one coin to be cast almost entirely in one typeface but has an odd character in another. Though early Vietnamese coins often bore the calligraphic style of the Chinese Khai Nguyên Thông Bảo (開元通寶) coin, especially those from the Đinh until the Trần dynasties.^[20]

The following coins were produced to circulate in Vietnam:

Unidentified Vietnamese coins from 1600 and later

At various times many rebel leaders proclaimed themselves as Lords (主), Kings (王), and Emperors (帝), and had produced their own coinage with their reign names and titles on them, but as their rebellions would prove unsuccessful or brief their reigns and titles would go unrecorded in Vietnamese history, therefore coins produced by their rebellions cannot easily be classified. Coins were also often privately cast and these coins were sometimes of high quality or well-made imitations of imperial coinage, though often they would bear the same inscriptions as already circulating coinage, sometimes they would have "newly invented" inscriptions.^[26] The Nguyễn lords that ruled over Southern Vietnam had also produced their own coinage at various times as they were the de facto kings of the South, but as their rule wasn't official, it is currently unknown what coins can be attributed to which Nguyễn lord. Though since Edouard Toda has made his list in 1882 several of the coins that he had described as "originating from the Quảng Nam province" have been ascribed to the Nguyễn lords that the numismatists of his time couldn't identify. During the rule of the Nguyễn lords many foundries for private mintage were also opened and many of these coins bear the same inscriptions as government cast coinage or even bear newly invented inscriptions making it hard to attribute these coins.^[27]

The following list contains Vietnamese coins whose origins cannot be established:

Cash coins made by the French government

During the time that Vietnam was under French administration, the French started minting cash coins for circulation first for within the colony of Cochinchina and then for the other regions of Vietnam. These coins were minted in Paris and were all struck as opposed to the contemporary cast coinage that already circulated within Vietnam.^{[30][31][32][33]}

See also

• Vietnamese dynasties
• Cash
• Chinese cash
• Japanese mon
• Korean mun
• Ryukyuan mon

Notes

References

Sources

• ED. TODA. (1882) ANNAM and its minor currency.
• Dr. R. Allan Barker. (2004) The historical Cash Coins of Viet Nam. ISBN 981-05-2300-9
• Pham Quoc Quan, Nguyen Dinh Chien, Nguyen Quoc Binh and Xiong Bao Kang: Tien Kim Loai Viet Nam. Vietnamese Coins. Bao Tang Lich Su Viet Nam. National Museum of Vietnamese History. Ha noi, 2005.
• Hội khoa học lịch sử Thừa Thiên Huế, sách đã dẫn. (in Vietnamese)
• Trương Hữu Quýnh, Đinh Xuân Lâm, Lê Mậu Hãn, sách đã dẫn. (in Vietnamese)
• Lục Đức Thuận, Võ Quốc Ky (2009), Tiền cổ Việt Nam, Nhà xuất bản Giáo dục. (in Vietnamese)
• Đỗ Văn Ninh (1992), Tiền cổ Việt Nam, Nhà xuất bản Khoa học xã hội. (in Vietnamese)
• Trương Hữu Quýnh, Đinh Xuân Lâm, Lê Mậu Hãn chủ biên (2008), Đại cương lịch sử Việt Nam, Nhà xuất bản Giáo dục. (in Vietnamese)
• Viện Sử học (2007), Lịch sử Việt Nam, tập 4, Nhà xuất bản Khoa học xã hội. (in Vietnamese)
• Trần Trọng Kim (2010), Việt Nam sử lược, Nhà xuất bản Thời đại. (in Vietnamese)
• Catalogue des monnaies vietnamiennes (in French), Francois Thierry

External links

• Collection Banknotes of Vietnam and the World
• Coins and Banknotes of Vietnam and French Indochina
• Cash coins of Vietnam 968 - 1945. Online Identifier

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