1 Lang - Khải Định Silver bar

The lang (or lượng) was a weight-based monetary unit rooted in Chinese metrological tradition, never fully standardized across Vietnamese territory. Khải Định's silver bars of this type were produced during a reign largely managed by the French Résidence Supérieure, making them curious artifacts of a nominally sovereign court operating under firm colonial constraint. They circulated primarily within ceremonial and tributary contexts rather than everyday commerce.

The KM#658/659 split likely reflects die or weight variants within the type — Joyaux's Vietnamese numismatic corpus documents both, and collectors should verify which subtype they hold before cataloging.