1 Tael

Produced under the Vichy administration governing French Indochina, this tael was struck specifically for the opium trade — the Régie de l'Opium, the colonial monopoly controlling opium distribution across the territory, required a weight-standardized silver medium for large transactions. It was not general circulation coinage in any conventional sense.

The timing matters: by 1944, Japanese forces had effectively absorbed French Indochina into the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, leaving Vichy administrators with increasingly nominal authority. Very few reached their intended commercial function before the political situation collapsed entirely.