6 Văn - Tự Đức Thông Bảo; Lục Văn

Tự Đức reigned over a Vietnam in accelerating crisis — the French had seized Cochinchina by 1862, and the subsequent decades saw the court at Huế increasingly desperate for revenue as sovereignty over the south collapsed entirely. The "Lục Văn" designation marks this as a six-văn piece, part of a fractional cash system that relied on zinc and brass issues to fill the gap left by chronic copper shortages plaguing the imperial mints at Huế and Bắc Thành.

Toda's cataloguing of this type in the late nineteenth century remains the foundational reference, with Barker's later work largely confirming his attributions. Cast rather than struck, minor variations in casting quality are the norm across survivors.