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The Vietnamese văn (chữ Hán: 文; French: Sapèque) as a denomination for Vietnamese cash coins was used from 1868 until 1945 during the reign of the Nguyễn dynasty. The inspiration to introduce the văn may have been to emulate the Chinese wén used on contemporary Qing dynasty cash coins which had just become a fiat currency, however unlike the Chinese system where all Chinese cash coins were cast from the same metals and the wén was the primary unit of account for coins made of the same metals, the Vietnamese system used the văn as a basic number currency symbol indicating how much zinc cash coins (銅鐱, đồng kẽm) a brass or bronze cash coin (đồng điếu) was worth, the Vietnamese cash coins-based currency system used the mạch (陌) and quán (貫) as units of account that could be based on either zinc cash coins or copper-alloy cash coins depending on the region or context. It was continued to be used as a measurement for zinc cash coins when the French Indochinese piastre was introduced,^[1] after which the term still appeared on Vietnamese cash coins and represented a subdivision of copper-alloy cash coins rather than the piastre, this was known in French as the sapèque en zinc, as the production of zinc coinage was ceased by the Imperial government of the Nguyễn dynasty around the year 1871.^[2]^[3]

The French zinc sapèque was worth generally worth 1⁄600 of a piastre (a currency based on the Mexican peso) during the French domination period were primarily used in the French protectorate of Tonkin.^[4] Meanwhile cash coins that circulated in the French protectorate of Annam tended to be made from copper-alloys and were valued higher than the Tonkinese zinc cash coins, these cash coins still typically used the văn currency unit.^[5]^[3]

The Vietnamese term văn (文) would appear on the Thành Thái Thông Bảo (成泰通寶), Duy Tân Thông Bảo (維新通寶), and Bảo Đại Thông Bảo (保大通寶) cash coins produced under French rule, the last of these was officially produced until 1945.^[6]^[7]

History

It first used by official decree in January 1868 during the reign of the Tự Đức Emperor which decreed that "the value of the large module copper cash coin passed to 6 (zinc) and the small copper coin to 4 zinc". In 1872 the first brass Tự Đức Thông Bảo (嗣德通寶) cash coins with the monetary unit văn were cast in Hanoi, these cash coins has weight of 7 phần and had the reverse inscription "Lục Văn" (六文) on them indicating that these coins were worth 6 zinc cash coins. The introduction of this new currency symbol marked the change in the relationship between Vietnamese cash coins made from copper and cash coins of zinc and it de facto increased the value of the Vietnamese brass cash currency. In November 1879 the official value of 6 copper phần was equal to 6 sapèques of zinc. However the foreign cash coinages as well as imitation (counterfeit) Vietnamese cash coins made of inferior alloys that circulated in Vietnam at the time were exchanged for only 3 cash coins of zinc.^[8]

In the year 1893, large brass Thành Thái Thông Bảo (成泰通寶) cash coins with a denomination of 10 văn (十文, thập văn), or 10 zinc cash coins, started being produced by the Huế Mint.^[9]

During the end of the 19th century a Tonkinese string of zinc cash coins typically had 600 coins while an Annamese string of copper-alloy cash coins only had 100 coins.^[3]

References

^ Jean-Pascal Bassino and Hironobu Nakagawa, Exchange Rates and Exchange Rate Policies in Vietnam Under French Rule, 1878-1945
^ "Sapeque and Sapeque-Like Coins in Cochinchina and Indochina (交趾支那和印度支那穿孔錢幣)". Howard A. Daniel III (The Journal of East Asian Numismatics – Second issue). 20 April 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c Ministry of the Colonies (1894). Note sur la circulation monétaire et les moyens d'échange dans les colonies françaises et pays de protectorat, d'après les documents officiels recueillis par l'administration des colonies (in French). The government of France. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
^ "Saigon-Cholon in 1868, by Charles Lemire". First published in the 1869 journal Annales des voyages, de la géographie, de l’histoire et de l’archéologie, edited by Victor-Adolphe Malte-Brun, Charles Lemire’s article “Coup d’oeil sur la Cochinchine Française et le Cambodge” gives us a fascinating portrait of Saigon-Chợ Lớn less than 10 years after the arrival of the French. 29 December 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
^ "Sử Việt, đọc vài quyển Chương IV "Tiền bạc, văn chương và lịch sử"". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2011-06-13.
^ French Southeast Asia Coins & Currency by Howard A. Daniel III (page 97).
^ 保大 Bảo Đại 1926-1945 cash coins By Sema (Art-Hanoi) Cash coins of Bao Dai were the last cash-style coins produced in the world. Retrieved: 19 March 2019
^ Art-Hanoi CURRENCY TYPES AND THEIR FACE VALUES DURING THE TỰ ĐỨC ERA. This is a translation of the article "Monnaies et circulation monetairé au Vietnam dans l'ère Tự Đức" (1848–1883) by Francois Thierry Published in Revue Numismatique 1999 (volume # 154). pp. 267–313. This translation is from pages 274–297. Translator: Craig Greenbaum. Retrieved: 19 March 2019.
^ François Thierry de Crussol (蒂埃里) (14 September 2015). "Bas monnayage de Thành Thái 成泰 (1889–1907) – Brass coinage of Thành Thái era (1889–1907)" (in French). TransAsiart. Retrieved 26 April 2020.