5 Tiền (Gold) - Minh Mạng Thông Bảo

Minh Mạng, the second Nguyễn emperor, oversaw the most aggressive administrative centralization in Vietnamese history, restructuring the Board of Revenue and standardizing the cash coin system across a unified Vietnam for the first time. Gold tiền of this denomination were not trade coins in any ordinary sense — they functioned primarily as court presentation pieces, distributed as imperial gifts and salary supplements to high-ranking mandarins, which explains why surviving examples so rarely show circulation wear.

The 19-gram weight standard follows the Vietnamese lượng subdivision system, with five tiền equaling half a lượng.