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1 Cash - Khải Định Thông Bảo, pattern
| Issuer | Empire of Vietnam |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916-1926 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
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| Obverse description | Central square hole flanked by four large Traditional Chinese characters arranged in the classic cash-coin reading order: top 啓, right 通, bottom 定, left 寶, together forming the reign-title legend Khải Định Thông Bảo. The characters are rendered in bold relief against a flat, unadorned field, occupying nearly the full diameter of the flan. No rim beading or decorative border is present, consistent with the plain milled edge of this pattern issue. The overall design follows the traditional Vietnamese cash-coin format, adapted here for a milled brass pattern struck during the reign of Emperor Khải Định (1916–1926). |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Blank, uniface reverse presenting a smooth, featureless brass field with no legend, device, or ornamental detail of any kind. The surface displays the natural texture of the struck flan, consistent with a pattern or trial piece where only the obverse die was employed. A slight concavity toward the center is visible, typical of uniface pattern strikes of this type. |
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| Additional information |
Khải Định reigned as a French-backed emperor whose authority was largely ceremonial, and the cash coinage produced under his name occupied an equally ambiguous space — traditional square-holed pieces issued while French Indochina's piastre system handled all real commerce. This piece's pattern status suggests it never cleared the approval process for circulation, likely caught between colonial administrators with little interest in funding a purely symbolic monetary gesture and a court with no practical mechanism to push it through.
Joyaux remains the definitive reference for Vietnamese cash patterns, and the 605A attribution places this among a small cluster of documented Khải Định trials.