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1 Cash - Gia Long Thông Bảo, with dot
| Issuer | Empire of Vietnam |
|---|---|
| Year | 1802-1820 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
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| Obverse description | Four Chinese characters in regular script (kaishu) are arranged in cruciform fashion around the central square perforation, reading top to bottom and right to left: 嘉 (top), 隆 (bottom), 通 (right), 寶 (left), forming the reign legend 嘉隆通寶 (Gia Long Thông Bảo). The characters are raised in relief against a flat field, each occupying one quadrant adjacent to the square central hole. A plain raised rim borders the outer edge of the coin, following standard Vietnamese Nguyễn dynasty cash coin conventions. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Chinese (traditional, regular script) |
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| Additional information |
Gia Long, the emperor who unified Vietnam in 1802 after decades of civil war, issued cash coins in the established Sino-Vietnamese tradition — square-holed cast brass pieces whose form had circulated across East Asia for centuries. The dot variety catalogued here distinguishes itself from the plain type by a single raised point on the reverse, almost certainly a mint or furnace mark rather than an ornamental choice, used to track output across multiple simultaneous casting operations.
Vietnam's cash coinage under Gia Long was produced at provincial foundries, not a single centralized facility, which accounts for the considerable variation in fabric and metal quality encountered across the series.