Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Cash - Khải Định Thông Bảo, cast
| Issuer | Empire of Vietnam |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916-1926 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.1 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Cast brass cash coin in the traditional East Asian style, featuring a central square hole flanked by four Chinese characters in regular script (kaishu), arranged in cruciform fashion and read top-to-bottom, right-to-left. The legend 啓定通寳 (Khải Định Thông Bảo) surrounds the central perforation within a plain raised rim. The characters are boldly rendered in high relief against a flat field, typical of Vietnamese Nguyễn dynasty cast coinage. The obverse surface shows the characteristic granular texture of sand-cast production. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | 啓 寳 通 定 (Translation: Khải Định Thông Bảo Khải Định (Emperor) / Universal currency) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Khải Định ascended to the throne in 1916 as a French-approved figurehead, his reign defined almost entirely by accommodation with the colonial administration. These cash pieces were cast — not struck — using the same square-holed, traditional Chinese-derived format that Vietnamese rulers had maintained for centuries, a deliberate continuity that projected dynastic legitimacy even as actual imperial authority had largely evaporated. The Nguyễn dynasty's mint at Huế produced them in small quantities relative to earlier reigns.
Khải Định died in 1925 without a clear monetary legacy; his son Bảo Đại succeeded him the following year, ending production of this type.