VIETNAM, GIA LONG THONG BAO, 1802-20 AD, cash, double rim, incuse circle on reverse

DescriptionNguyen Phuc Anh was the founder of the Nguyen dynasty. He lost his family during the Tayson rebellion, and sought aid from the French. French aid was lackluster until he took the country. Then they started to get involved, which led to the eventual colonial takeover. During his reign Vietnam expelled Siamese forces from Cambodia and turned that land into a vassal state.The Nguyen dynasty was founded by Nguyen The To, who defeated the Tayson after twenty years. He had help from the French, giving them a foothold in the country. It took the Vietnames 150 years to get rid of them.Vietnam has rarely been fully united as a country. Unlike the Koreans, who always formally accepted Chinese suzerainty, the Vietnamese never accepted that status. We could say that the country has been at war with China for the last 2000 years. Still, as we all know, a lot of Chinese cultural influence, including the way they structured their economy and the kinds of coins they made. My main reference for Vietnamese cast coins: The Historical Cash Coins of Viet Nam, by Allan Barker. Supplementary reference: A Working Aid for Collectors of Annamese Coins, by John A. Novak.China calls itself “Central Country.” That is in reference to the vast Asian hinterland that is not China, and to the island peoples out in the Pacific Ocean. Because China tended to do organizational things earliest in that part of the world, the outsiders would notice and adopt useful practices that they observed. Among those borrowed cultural practices was the adoption of the money economy to replace direct barter, or to replace less convenient shapes of metal, rings and tools and jewelry bits. The Chinese style of market money being square holed cast bronze coins, that became the form of the coins made in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, the islands out to Java, into Siberia and as far west as Kazakhstan.