4 Tiền - Tự Đức

Tự Đức reigned longer than any other Nguyễn emperor — 36 years — but his reign was defined by compounding catastrophe: French military pressure from 1858 onward, the fall of Đà Nẵng and Gia Định, and the 1862 Treaty of Saigon that ceded three southern provinces outright. Gold coinage of this type continued to be struck across that entire arc of dynastic contraction, meaning examples from the later years of the issue were produced by an imperial administration that had already lost effective sovereignty over a third of its own territory.

The Imperial Mint in Huế operated under direct court supervision, with gold issues serving court ceremonial and tributary functions rather than general commerce. Few reached circulation in any conventional sense.