The Khải Định Thông Bảo ( Hán tự: 啓定通寳) was a French Indochinese sapèque coin produced from 1921 until 1933, the design of the coin was round with a square hole that was used for stringing them together.

Khải Định Khải Định (; chữ Hán: 啓定; born Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Đảo; 8 October 1885 – 6 November 1925) was the 12th emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty in Vietnam, reigning from 1916 to 1925. His name at birth was Prince Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Đ� ...

became King of Annam in 1916 the funding for the production of new cash coins was reduced by the

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

Mint which lead to the demand of the Vietnamese market for low value denominations to not be met, furthermore, after Hanoi reduced funding for the

Thanh Hóa Thanh Hóa () is the capital of Thanh Hóa Province. The city is situated in the east of the province on the Ma River (Sông Mã), about 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Hanoi and 1560 kilometers (969 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh City. Thanh ...

Mint, which until that time was producing enough low denomination cast cash coins to meet the market's demands, which caused most, but not all, of the production of cash coins at the mint to cease in 1920. In response a new committee was formed in Hanoi which ordered the creation of machine-struck Khải Định Thông Bảo cash coins, these are the first machine-struck four character Thông Bảo (通寳) coins in Vietnam with the reigning emperor's name as the

French government The Government of France (French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who i ...

had prior tried to introduce a Cochinchinese 2 sapèque coin that continued under French Indochina that weighed 2.05 grams and had a nominal value of piastre, later the colonial government of the French Protectorate of Tonkin had unsuccessfully tried to introduce a

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

milled sapèque produced by the Paris Mint with a nominal value of piastre from 1905 until 1906. Unlike the earlier attempts at producing machine-struck cash coins by the colonial French authorities the Khải Định Thông Bảo proved to be much more successful as the first series had a production of 27,629,000 coins while the second series greatly exceeded this with around 200,000,000 coins produced in

Huế Huế () is the capital of Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and was the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the old Imperial City and admi ...

Haiphong Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta. Haiphong wa ...

, and Hanoi. The Khải Định Thông Bảo continued to be produced long after the death of Emperor Khải Định under his successor

Bảo Đại Bảo Đại (, vi-hantu, , lit. "keeper of greatness", 22 October 191331 July 1997), born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy (), was the 13th and final emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam. From 1926 to 1945, he was em ...

until it was phased out by the Bảo Đại Thông Bảo (保大通寳) in 1933. In the French protectorate of Annam cash coins were still being used for virtually all transactions as late as 1921, in order to combat

deflation In economics, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0% (a negative inflation rate). Inflation reduces the value of currency over time, but sudden deflatio ...

the Khải Định Thông Bảo was introduced and mass-produced. The new machine-struck were produced in the French protectorate of Tonkin to be placed into the treasury of the

government of the Nguyễn dynasty The government of the Nguyễn dynasty, officially the Southern Court ( Vietnamese: ''Nam Triều''; Hán-Nôm: 南朝) and commonly referred to as the Huế Court (Vietnamese: ''Triều đình Huế''; Hán-Nôm: 朝廷化), centred around the ...

until an opportune moment would present itself to introduce them into general circulation to combat the negative effects of

hoarding Hoarding is a behavior where people or animals accumulate food or other items. Animal behavior ''Hoarding'' and ''caching'' are common in many bird species as well as in rodents. Most animal caches are of food. However, some birds will a ...

, which resulted in the gradual disappearance of older cash coins from circulation causing the low denomination copper-alloy coins to become scarce. The new Khải Định Thông Bảo cash coins were introduced with a hope to reduce the

cost of living Cost of living is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living. Changes in the cost of living over time can be operationalized in a cost-of-living index. Cost of living calculations are also used to compare the cost of maintaining a cer ...

caused by delfation. The French government in Annam announced in their official bulletin that they would exchange 1 Khải Định Thông Bảo cash coin for 6 old cash coins in order to promote their circulation. Because the machine-struck Khải Định Thông Bảo cash coins were heavier than the earlier milled 2 sapèques produced by the Paris Mint, they were likely valued at piastre. A number of the machine-struck cash coins were produced by ''Poinsard & Veyret Comptoirs D’Extrême-Orient'' in

Hải Phòng Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta. Haiphong wa ...

, French Tonkin. While the Hanoi-made coins were struck by the

Banque de l'Indochine The Banque de l'Indochine (), originally Banque de l'Indo-Chine ("Bank of Indochina"), was a bank created in 1875 in Paris to finance French colonial development in Asia. As a bank of issue in Indochina until 1952 (and in French Paci ...

. In Tonkin these coins were welcomed and circulated with small denomination coins of the French Indochinese piastre, while in Annam the people were more reluctant to adopt the new machine-struck coinage.

Other coins

The inscription "Khải Định Thông Bảo" was also used for non-cash coins produced under the reign of Emperor Khải Định for

tiền The term ''tiền'' ( Hán tự: 錢) is used to refer to various currency-related concepts used in Vietnamese history. The name is a cognate with the Chinese ''qián'' (錢), a unit of weight called " mace" in English. It can refer to a unit ...

(錢) and lạng (兩) coins made from silver and gold, respectively.Linh, Vietnamese in Vancouve
Khải Định Thông Bảo
. (in

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

) Xin visa du lịch – Đặt phòng & vé máy bay – Hỗ trợ 24/7 Retrieved: 10 February 2018. Although more commonly the inscription ''Khải Định Niên Tạo'' (啓定年造) was used for silver ingots ( sycees).

Notes

References

Sources

* Howard A. Daniel, III (3rd edition, 2018) ''The Catalog and Guidebook of Southeast Asian Coins and Currency. Volume I: France''.

External link

* {{Nguyễn dynasty topics Currencies of Vietnam Modern obsolete currencies Economic history of Vietnam Cash coins by inscription

Other coins

See also

Notes

References

Sources

External link