User:Donald Trung/Independent Nguyễn Dynasty coinage expansion (February 2022)

This page serves as "the editing history" of the English Wikipedia article "Vietnamese cash" and is preserved for attribution.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:MobileDiff/1069950203&type=revision Published. --Donald Trung (talk) 22:28, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

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History

Nguyễn dynasty

During the Nguyễn dynasty period in addition to their circulating zinc and copper-alloy cash coins the government also produced silver and gold cash coins.^[1]

Independent Nguyễn dynasty and French Cochinchina

Under the Gia Long Emperor three kinds of cash coins were produced in smaller denominations made of copper, lead, and zinc.^[2] According to the book Đại Nam thực lục chính biên the first cash coins with the inscription Gia Long Thông Bảo (嘉隆通寶) were cast in the year Gia Long 2 (1802). Under the Gia Long Emperor mints were opened in Bắc Thành (Hanoi) and Gia Định (Hồ Chí Minh City).^[1]

The cash coins of the Tây Sơn dynasty were initially only allowed to circulate for 5 years after the ascension of Gia Long.^[1] According to a document from the year Gia Long 16 (1817) the government of the Nguyễn dynasty ordered for the destruction of all "fake cash coins" from circulation explaining that the prior currency situation was chaotic.^[1] The "fake cash coins" were still allowed to circulate in the year Gia Long 15 and must now be destroyed.^[1] All payments and salaries for public services and government employees must be expressed in zinc cash coins, government employees must collect all "fake cash coins" they have and store it in a government warehouse to later be melted down and exchanged for the newly minted zinc cash coins.^[1] The zinc cash coins were also ordered to circulate in the Southern regions and merchants were ordered to carry them with them whenever they would engage in trade to promote their circulation.^[1]

Throughout most of the Nguyễn dynasty period, the government tried to exclude money it termed Tiền cấm (錢禁, "Forbidden money") from circulation.^[3] The Tiền cấm included the following three categories:^[3]

1: Tây Sơn dynasty coinage, because of the Nguyễn dynasty's dislike of the Tây Sơn dynasty, which it viewed as illegitimate, it tried to exclude its coinage from circulation.^[3] But because of the extensive issuance of cash coins during this period it wasn't until 1822 that the Nguyễn could successfully discourage their circulation by fixing an exchange rate of 2 Tây Sơn dynasty copper-alloy cash coins for 1 Nguyễn dynasty zinc cash coin.^[3]

2: Black money, including stolen money.^[3]

3: Inferior quality money created by Chinese merchants, these cash coins were often of inferior quality and contained a high percentage of lead.^[3]

According to the Đại Nam Thực lục chính biên, there were several different types of Gia Long Thông Bảo cash coins cast.^[1] A bronze cash coin with the inscription Lục phần (七分) in seal script on its reverse, a thicker zinc cash coin with the inscription Nhất phần on its reverse, and a copper-alloy cash coin with dots on its reverse side symbolising the sun and moon.^[1] The 7 phần zinc cash coins started being made from the year Gia Long 12 (1813) onwards.^[1]

Since the reign of the Gia Long Emperor, zinc cash coins (銅鐱, Đồng kẽm) had replaced the usage of copper and brass cash coins and formed the basis of the Vietnamese currency system.^[2] Under Gia Long the standard 1 văn denomination coins weighed seven phần and under the Minh Mạng Emperor six phần (approximately 2.28 grams) which would remain the standard for future rulers.^[2] Zinc cash coins produced in Hanoi under the Tự Đức Emperor had the mint mark Hà Nội (河內) on them, with there being another mint in Sơn Tây (山西).^[4]

From the Gia Long until the Thiệu Trị periods 1 copper-alloy cash coin was valued at 1.2 to 1.3 zinc cash coins, from the Tự Đức onwards they were valued at 1.3 to 1.4 zinc cash coins each.^[5]

From 1837 during the first year of the reign of the Minh Mạng Emperor, Mạch (陌) brass cash coins were issued; these cash coins feature Minh Mạng Thông Bảo (明命通寶) on their obverses but have eight characters on their reverses. One Mạch coins would be continued under subsequent rulers of the Nguyễn dynasty.^[2]

In 1849 the Tự Đức Emperor was forced to legalise the private production of zinc cash coins as too many illegal mints kept being established throughout both Đại Nam and China.^[3] These privately minted zinc cash coins were allowed as long as they circulated according to their correct weights.^[3]

However, in 1871 the production of zinc cash coins stopped as many mines were being blocked by Chinese pirates and the continued production of these coins would be too expensive.^[2] Other reasons for the discontinuation of zinc cash coins despite them being indispensable to the general populace were because they were heavy compared to their nominal value and the metal was quite brittle.^[2] Following the establishment of the French colony of Cochinchina the chaotic monetary situation of Đại Nam severely worsened as Qing Chinese merchants quickly took advantage of it and started producing poor quality cash coins to bring to the colony where no regulations against their activities existed.^[3] The Tự Đức Emperor tried to search Qing merchant ships, make outposts block their entry, and ban Qing Chinese merchants from bringing in too much money.^[3] Though by 1879 the Nguyễn court was forced to accept the copper-alloy Hành dị dạng tiền (deformed money) at a value of 3 zinc cash coins, provided that the cash coin in question was quite similar in quality to the indigenous Vietnamese currency.^[3]

To the French, zinc coinage also presented a huge inconvenience since the colonisation of Cochinchina in 1859 as the exchange between French francs and zinc văn meant that a large number of zinc coins were exchanged for the French franc.^[2] Zinc cash coins often broke during transportation as the strings that kept them together would often snap. The coins would fall on the ground and a great number of them would break into pieces; these coins were also less resistant to oxidation, causing them to corrode faster than other coinages.^[2]

"Another serious disadvantage consisted in the total absence of token coinages other than the inconvenient sapèque one of zinc: one needed an artillery van to go exchange 1,000 francs in ligatures for the one sapèques, since it had the weight of a barrel and half.... and at the market, the chicken weighed some times less than its price in currency."

- J. Silvestre, Monnaies et de Médailles de l'Annam et de la Cochinchine Française (1883).

Prior to 1849 brass coins had become an extreme rarity and only circulated in the provinces surrounding the capital cities of Vietnam, but under Tự Đức new regulations and (uniform) standards for copper cash coins were created to help promote their usage.^[2] Between 1868 and 1872 brass coins were only around 50% copper, and 50% zinc.^[2] Due to the natural scarcity of copper in Vietnam the country always lacked the resources to produce sufficient copper coinage for circulation.^[2]

Under Tự Đức large coins with the denomination of 60 văn were introduced. These coins were ordered to circulate at a value of 1 tiền, but their intrinsic value was significantly lower so they were badly received; the production of these coins was quickly discontinued in favour of 20, 30, 40, and 50 văn coins known as Đồng Sao. In 1870 Tự Đức Bảo Sao cash coins of 2, 3, 8, and 9 Mạch were issued.^[2]^[6]^[7] Large denomination coins were mostly used for tax collection as their relatively low intrinsic value lowered their spending power on the market.^[8]^[9]

In 1882, at the time when Eduardo Toda y Güell's Annam and its minor currency was published, only two government mints remained in operation: one in Hanoi, and one in Huế.^[10] However, private mints were allowed to cast cash coins with the permission of the government, and a large number of cash coins were also imported from abroad as at that time the Portuguese colony of Macau had six mints with twelve furnaces producing 600,000 cash coins for Vietnam on a daily basis.^[10]

Cash coins circulated in the 19th century along with silver and gold bars, as well as silver and gold coins weighed in tiền.^[2] Denominations up to ten tiền were minted, with the seven tiền coins in gold and silver being similar in size and weight to the Spanish eight real and eight escudo pieces.^[2] These coins continued to be minted into the 20th century, albeit increasingly supplanted by French colonial coinage.^[2]

After the introduction of modern coinage by the French in 1878, cash coins remained in general circulation in French Cochinchina.^[11]

Initially the French attempted to supplement cash coins in circulation by punching round holes into French 1 centime coins and shipping a large amount of them to French Cochinchina, but these coins did not see much circulation and the Cochinchinese people largely rejected them.^[12]

On 7 April and 22 April 1879, the governor of French Cochinchina had decreed that the new designs for coins with Cochinchine Française on them would be accepted with the denominations 2 sapèques (cash coins), 1 cent, 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, and the piastre.^[13] All coins except for the piastre were allowed to be issued, which allowed for Spanish dollars and Mexican reals to continue circulating.^[13] The Paris Mint produced the new machine-struck 2 sapèques Cochinchine Française cash coins.^[13] These French-produced bronze cash coins weighed 2 grams and were valued at 1⁄500 piastre. They saw considerably more circulation than the previous French attempt at creating cash coins, but were still largely disliked by the Cochinchinese people.^[13] The local population still preferred their own Tự Đức Thông Bảo (嗣德通寶) cash coins despite only being valued at 1⁄1000 piastre.^[13]

Under French rule

In the year 1883 the Harmand Treaty was signed, which was replaced in 1884 with the Patenôtre Treaty. These treaties were created following the French conquest of Đại Nam, which established the French protectorates of Annam and Tonkin. While these two countries were in a subordinate relationship with France, they were still nominally ruled by the Nguyễn Empire and the old currency system continued to be used and produced by the government of the Nguyễn dynasty there. Despite the later introduction of the French Indochinese piastre, zinc and copper-alloy cash coins would continue to circulate among the Vietnamese populace throughout the country as the primary form of coinage, as the majority of the population lived in extreme poverty until 1945 (and 1948 in some areas). They were valued at the rates of about 500–600 cash coins for one piastre.^[14]^[15] The need for coins was only a minor part in the lives of most Vietnamese people at the time, as bartering remained more common since all coins were bartered on the market according to their current intrinsic values.^[15]^[12]

During the Kiến Phúc period (2 December 1883 – 31 July 1884), the regent Nguyễn Văn Tường accepted bribes from Qing Chinese merchants to allow them to bring their tiền sềnh (錢浧, "extraordinary money") depicting the reign era of the Tự Đức Emperor into the country.^[16] Nguyễn Văn Tường forced people to accept and spend this bad quality Chinese imitation money, those who refused to accept it could face the penalty of arrest.^[16] This money is described as being "very ugly, too thin, and extremely light" (weighing only about 1 gram), according to descriptions it was so light in fact that these cash coins can float on water.^[17]^[18] Roman Catholic missionaries active in Đại Nam took advantage of bad condition of this new money to propagate the idea that it was a sign that the Nguyễn dynasty was in decline.^[17]^[18] These cash coins have sometimes been mistaken for the 17th and 18th century Tiền gián (with the inscriptions of Thiên Thánh Nguyên Bảo and An Pháp Nguyên Bảo).^[17] However, these earlier low quality money was still heavier and more valuable than the nearly worthless tiền sềnh brought into the country by merchants from the Qing dynasty by the end of the 19th century.^[18]

Following the establishment of French Indochina, a new version of the French 2 sapèques was produced from 1887 to 1902, which was also valued at 1⁄500 piastre and was likely forced on the Vietnamese when they were paid for their goods and services by the French, as the preference still was for indigenous cash coins.^[13]

Under French administration the Nguyễn government issued the Kiến Phúc Thông Bảo (建福通寶), Hàm Nghi Thông Bảo (咸宜通寶), Đồng Khánh Thông Bảo (同慶通寶), Thành Thái Thông Bảo (成泰通寶), Duy Tân Thông Bảo (維新通寶) cash coins of different metal compositions and weights.^[19] Each of these cash coins had their own value against the French Indochinese piastre.^[19] Because the exchange values between the native cash coins and silver piastres were confusing, the local Vietnamese people were often cheated by the money changers during this period.^[19]

The Kiến Phúc Thông Bảo was mixed with iron when it was minted and featured blank reverse sides.^[1] Several batches of Kiến Phúc Thông Bảo cash coins were produced, but due to the fact that the French Army was putting pressure on the Huế Court the throne changed hands several times and the rule of the Kiến Phúc Emperor was very brief, so not much attention to the economy was paid by government.^[1] Because of these factors only a very small number of Kiến Phúc Thông Bảo cash coins were minted which confirm the new Emperor's reign era name, but they didn't have a large effect on the money in circulation as their quantity was too small to make a difference.^[1] The Hàm Nghi Thông Bảo cash coins were likewise only minted in small quantities due to his short reign.^[1] These cash coins were made from copper-alloys and have the inscription "Lục Văn" (六文) on their reverse indicating their denomination.^[1]

During the reign of the Đồng Khánh Emperor two series of Đồng Khánh Thông Bảo cash coins were minted;^[1] the first series were cast in 1776 with a diameter of 26 millimeters, and the second series in 1887 with a diameter of 23 millimeters.^[1] All cash coins from this era had blank reverse sides.^[1]

In 1894 the 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 reported that aside from the piastre and zinc and copper-alloy cash coins other indigenous currencies circulated in the Nguyễn dynasty, these included a silver cash coin which was valued at 2 strings each, a silver sycee weighing 1 Lượng was valued at 12 strings, a silver Nen was valued at 140 strings, a gold Lượng valued at 300 strings, and a gold Nen valued at 3000 strings.^[20] It was reported that Asian merchants used conventional silver bars made from melted coins that were withdrawn from circulation, these were valued at 15 piastres.^[20] In Tonkin zinc cash coins remained in circulation while they only continued to circulate in some regions of Annam.^[20]

In 1894 a string of cash coins in Tonkin was composed of 600 zinc cash coins divided into rows of 10 coins each (called a tiền), while in Annam a string was composed of 100 copper-alloy cash coins divided into rows of 10.^[20] At the time 8~10 strings of cash coins were worth a piastre.^[20] In the French protectorate of Cambodia a string would contain 450 to 500 Vietnamese cash coins, with 8 cash coins being valued at 1 cent.^[20]

On 1 August 1898 it was reported in the Bulletin Economique De L’Indo-Chine article; Le Monnaie De L’Annam that the Huế Mint was closed in 1887, and in 1894 the casting of cash coins had started at the Thanh Hóa Mint.^[19] Between the years 1889 and 1890 the Huế Mint produced 1321 strings of 600 small brass Thành Thái Thông Bảo cash coins.^[21] These small brass cash coins were valued at six zinc cash coins.^[21] In the year 1893, large brass Thành Thái Thông Bảo cash coins with a denomination of ten văn (十文, thập văn), or ten zinc cash coins, started being produced by the Huế Mint.^[21] The production of Thành Thái Thông Bảo cash coins were resumed at the Thanh Hóa Mint between the years 1894 and 1899.^[21] Under Emperor Thành Thái gold and silver coinages were also produced.^[21]

In the year 1902 the French ceased production of machine-struck cash coins at the Paris Mint and completely deferred the production of cash coins back to the government of the Nguyễn dynasty.^[19] There were people in Hanoi and Saigon that still preferred the French machine-struck cash coins, so a committee was set up in Hanoi that created a machine-struck zinc cash coin valued at 1⁄600 piastre dated 1905 but issued in 1906.^[19] However, this series of cash coins was not well-received by either the local or the French population as the coins were brittle, prone to corrosion, and easily broken, so their production was quickly halted.^[19]

In order to try to standardise the exchange rate between the French Indochinese piastre and cash coins, the Resident-Superior of the French protectorate of Tonkin fixed the local Tonkinese exchange rates every month. This was done to prevent rampant speculation by Chinese merchants and Nguyễn dynasty mandarins.^[22] Money changers generally tended to value the piastre based on its weight in silver, but also according to the perfection of its strike, and even according to the purity of its silver.^[22] The official exchange rates were not rigorously applied and the money changers often estimated their own values to individual piastre coins.^[22]

In 1932 it was reported by L'Éveil économique de l'Indochine ("The Economic Awakening of Indochina") that cash coins were increasingly becoming scarce in Annam and Tonkin, the L'Éveil économique de l'Indochine advised the government of the Nguyễn dynasty to start producing zinc Bảo Đại Thông Bảo cash coins to counter the scarcity of low denomination currencies, at this time zinc cash coins were still circulating in Annam while very few of them were left in Tonkin.^[23]

On 29 September 1939 the Hanoian newspaper l'Effort Indochinois reported that the governments of French Indochina and the Nguyễn dynasty pursued a policy called an muoi, which sought to stabilise the exchange rate between cash coins and the piastre at 360:1.^[24] During this period there was a market liquidity crisis worsened by the hoarding of low denomination cash coins by the general populace causing massive deflation of cash coins.^[24] There has been a serious devaluation of the piastre in Annam, among the solutions proposed by the government of French Indochina was the increased production of paper money.^[24] Despite starting the an muoi policy in 1937, by 1939 the exchange rate between the piastre and cash coins was at 5 strings per piastre while in some rural areas the price of the piastre went down as much as 3 strings per piastre.^[24]

The deflation of cash coins proved to be very detrimental to the economy and local trade.^[24] The reason why these exchange rates were unstable was because of the fact that cash coins remained independent of the piastre, despite their fixed exchange rates.^[24] l'Effort Indochinois reported that in Tonkin the Khải Định Thông Bảo and Bảo Đại Thông Bảo cash coins were less sensitive to the deflationary pressure caused by hoarding than older cash coins as they weren't being overvalued in the market in relation to the French Indochinese piastre.^[24] As Tonkinese people had a much higher standard of living than the Annamites, the velocity of money was likewise faster and coins like the 10 cents, 20 cents, Etc. mingled more with the cash coins in Tonkin than they did in Annam.^[24]

l'Effort Indochinois noted that many causes of the deflation and hoarding were more psychological in nature rather than practical, noting that the new cash coins that were being produced in Tonkin was manufactured in a different way from the old ones (machine-struck vs. cast) and that this development was even more recent than banknotes.^[24] Meanwhile in Annam large quantities of Minh Mạng Thông Bảo, Thiệu Trị Thông Bảo, Etc. as well as millennium old cash coins remained in circulation as the population stubbornly held onto them.^[24] In fact, there remained a strong preference for cast Bảo Đại Thông Bảo cash coins over machine-struck ones of the same inscription.^[24] This was as the population preferred to keep with the traditional currency system and that cast cash coins were seen as "good old sapèques" from "the good old days" as opposed to both machine-struck cash coins and the French Indochinese piastre who saw it as "modern inventions incompatible with their traditional lifestyles".^[24] To combat this mentality l'Effort Indochinois advised the government to mint cash coins of different models and metals and to give them a clearly defined value in relation to the divisionaries of the piastre and introduce them to the Annamese countryside, as well as to introduce the machine-struck Bảo Đại Thông Bảo that were already circulating in Tonkin into rural Annam.^[24]

The last monarch whose name was cast on cash coins, Emperor Bảo Đại, died in 1997.

History (Original)

Nguyễn Dynasty

Pre-colonial era (Original)

Under Gia Long three kinds of cash coins were produced in smaller denominations made of copper, lead, and zinc.^[2] From 1837 under the reign of Minh Mạng 1, Mạch (陌) brass cash coins were issued; these cash coins feature Minh Mạng Thông Bảo (明命通寶) on their obverses but have eight characters on their reverses. One Mạch coins would be continued under subsequent rulers of the Nguyễn dynasty.^[2]

Since the reign of Gia Long, zinc cash coins (銅鐱, Đồng kẽm) had replaced the usage of copper and brass cash coins and formed the basis of the Vietnamese currency system.^[2] Under Gia Long the standard 1 văn denomination coins weighed seven phần and under Minh Mạng six phần (approximately 2.28 grams) which would remain the standard for future rulers.^[2] Zinc cash coins produced in Hanoi under Tự Đức had the mint mark Hà Nội (河內) on them, with there being another mint in Sơn Tây (山西).^[4]

However, in 1871 the production of zinc cash coins stopped as many mines were being blocked by Chinese pirates and the continued production of these coins would be too expensive.^[2] Other reasons for the discontinuation of zinc cash coins despite them being indispensable to the general populace were because they were heavy compared to their nominal value and the metal was quite brittle.^[2] To the French, zinc coinage also presented a huge inconvenience since the colonisation of Cochinchina in 1859 as the exchange between French francs and zinc văn meant that a large number of zinc coins were exchanged for the French franc.^[2] Zinc cash coins often broke during transportation as the strings that kept them together would often snap. The coins would fall on the ground and a great number of them would break into pieces; these coins were also less resistant to oxidation, causing them to corrode faster than other coinages.^[2]

"Another serious disadvantage consisted in the total absence of token coinages other than the inconvenient sapèque one of zinc: one needed an artillery van to go exchange 1,000 francs in ligatures for the one sapèques, since it had the weight of a barrel and half.... and at the market, the chicken weighed some times less than its price in currency."

- J. Silvestre, Monnaies et de Médailles de l'Annam et de la Cochinchine Française (1883).

Prior to 1849 brass coins had become an extreme rarity and only circulated in the provinces surrounding the capital cities of Vietnam, but under Tự Đức new regulations and (uniform) standards for copper cash coins were created to help promote their usage.^[2] Between 1868 and 1872 brass coins were only around 50% copper, and 50% zinc.^[2] Due to the natural scarcity of copper in Vietnam the country always lacked the resources to produce sufficient copper coinage for circulation.^[2]

Under Tự Đức large coins with the denomination of 60 văn were introduced. These coins were ordered to circulate at a value of 1 tiền, but their intrinsic value was significantly lower so they were badly received; the production of these coins was quickly discontinued in favour of 20, 30, 40, and 50 văn coins known as Đồng Sao. In 1870 Tự Đức Bảo Sao cash coins of 2, 3, 8, and 9 Mạch were issued.^[2] Large denomination coins were mostly used for tax collection as their relatively low intrinsic value lowered their spending power on the market.^[25]^[26]

List of large denomination cash coins issued under Emperor Tự Đức:^[27]^[28]

Denomination	Hán tự (reverse inscription)	Years of mintage	Weight	Toda image
10 văn	準十文 (Chuẩn thập văn)	1861	5.66 g.	None
10 văn	準一十文 (Chuẩn nhất thập văn)	1870	5.66 g.	None
20 văn	準二十文 (Chuẩn nhị thập văn)	1861–1870	11.33 g.	None
30 văn	準三十文 (Chuẩn tam thập văn)	1861–1870		None
40 văn	準四十文 (Chuẩn tứ thập văn)	1870	12.20 g.	None
50 văn	準五十文 (Chuẩn ngũ thập văn)	1861	23.40 g.
50 văn	準五十文 (Chuẩn ngũ thập văn)	1870	12.75 g.
60 văn	準六十文 (Chuẩn lục thập văn)	1870	12.20 g.
2 mạch (120 văn)	準當二陌 (Chuẩn đang nhị mạch)	1870	20.52 g.	None
3 mạch (180 văn)	準當三陌 (Chuẩn đang tam mạch)	1870		None
8 mạch (480 văn)	準當八陌 (Chuẩn đang bát mạch)	1870	35.4 g.	None
9 mạch (540 văn)	準當九陌 (Chuẩn đang cửu mạch)	1870	28.03 g.	None
1 quán	準當一貫 (Chuẩn đang nhất quán)	1870	32.96 g.	None

In 1882, at the time when Toda's Annam and its minor currency was published, only two government mints remained in operation: one in Hanoi, and one in Huế.^[10] However, private mints were allowed to cast cash coins with the permission of the government, and a large number of cash coins were also imported from abroad as at that time the Portuguese colony of Macau had six mints with twelve furnaces producing 600,000 cash coins for Vietnam on a daily basis.^[10]

Cash coins circulated in the 19th century along with silver and gold bars, as well as silver and gold coins known as tiền.^[2] Denominations up to ten tiền were minted, with the seven tiền coins in gold and silver being similar in size and weight to the Spanish eight real and eight escudo pieces.^[2] These coins continued to be minted into the 20th century, albeit increasingly supplanted by French colonial coinage.^[2]

Under French rule

After the introduction of modern coinage by the French in 1878, cash coins remained in general circulation in French Cochinchina.^[11] Despite the later introduction of the French Indochinese piastre, zinc and copper-alloy cash coins would continue to circulate among the Vietnamese populace throughout the country as the primary form of coinage, as the majority of the population lived in extreme poverty until 1945 (and 1948 in some areas). They were valued at the rates of about 500–600 cash coins for one piastre.^[14]^[15] The need for coins was only a minor part in the lives of most Vietnamese people at the time, as bartering remained more common since all coins were bartered on the market according to their current intrinsic values.^[15]^[12]

Initially the French attempted to supplement cash coins in circulation by punching round holes into French 1 centime coins and shipping a large amount of them to French Cochinchina, but these coins did not see much circulation and the Cochinchinese people largely rejected them.^[12]

On 7 April and 22 April 1879, the governor of French Cochinchina had decreed that the new designs for coins with Cochinchine Française on them would be accepted with the denominations 2 sapèques (cash coins), 1 cent, 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, and the piastre.^[13] All coins except for the piastre were allowed to be issued, which allowed for Spanish dollars and Mexican reals to continue circulating.^[13] The Paris Mint produced the new machine-struck 2 sapèques Cochinchine Française cash coins.^[13] These French-produced bronze cash coins weighed 2 grams and were valued at 1⁄500 piastre. They saw considerably more circulation than the previous French attempt at creating cash coins, but were still largely disliked by the Cochinchinese people.^[13] The local population still preferred their own Tự Đức Thông Bảo (嗣德通寶) cash coins despite only being valued at 1⁄1000 piastre.^[13]

In the year 1884 the Patenôtre Treaty was signed following the French conquest of Đại Nam, which established the French protectorates of Annam and Tonkin. These protectorates were still nominally ruled by the Nguyễn Empire and the old currency system continued to be used and produced by the government of the Nguyễn dynasty. Following the establishment of French Indochina, a new version of the French 2 sapèques was produced from 1887 to 1902, which was also valued at 1⁄500 piastre and was likely forced on the Vietnamese when they were paid for their goods and services by the French, as the preference still was for indigenous cash coins.^[13]