See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration! or register with email

Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!

6 Tiền - Bao Dai

Issuer Empire of Vietnam
Year 1926-1945
Type Log in to see details
Value Log in to see details
Currency Log in to see details
Composition Log in to see details
Weight Log in to see details
Diameter 37 mm
Thickness Log in to see details
Shape Log in to see details
Technique Log in to see details
Orientation Log in to see details
Engraver(s) Log in to see details
In circulation to Log in to see details
Reference(s) Log in to see details
Obverse description The obverse features four large Chinese characters arranged in a cruciform pattern around a central motif: 保 (Bảo) at top, 寳 (Bảo) at right, 鑑 (Giám) at left, and 大 (Đại) at bottom, together reading 保大寳鑑 (Bảo Đại Bảo Giám). At the centre of the field, a stylised flaming sun or lotus device is rendered in low relief, serving as the focal point of the composition. The entire design is enclosed within a beaded inner border running along the coin's circumference. Two small suspension holes are pierced at the top and bottom of the flan, indicating this piece was intended to be worn or suspended. The execution is characteristic of Vietnamese imperial court goldwork of the Nguyễn dynasty period.
Obverse script Log in to see details
Obverse lettering 保大寳鑑
(Translation: Bao Dai Bao Chien)
Reverse description Log in to see details
Reverse script Log in to see details
Reverse lettering Log in to see details
Edge Log in to see details
Mint Log in to see details
Mintage Log in to see details
Additional information

Bảo Đại ascended the throne in 1926 as a teenager freshly returned from schooling in France, and his coinage reflects the peculiar administrative hybrid that French Indochina had become — nominally imperial Vietnamese, practically colonial. The 6 Tiền denomination in gold was never a circulation piece in any conventional sense; it functioned within a tributary and ceremonial economy that the French tolerated because it cost them nothing to permit.

Bảo Đại abdicated in August 1945 under Việt Minh pressure, handing his seal and sword to Hồ Chí Minh's representatives — effectively ending the issuing authority behind this coinage permanently.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE