Vietnam, Annam, Tay-son Rebellion (1764-1801), Nguyen Van-toan (Nguyễn Quang Toản), Canh-thinh era (1791-1800), 1791-1800 AD.,
1 Cash / Phan (ø 23 mm / 0,90 g), cast brass, square center hole,
Obv.: 景 - 盛 - 通 - 寶 , Canh-thinh-thong-bao (Cảnh Thịn thông bảo), top-down-right-left of center hole.
Rev.: plain with rim (square center hole).
Barker 95.1-95.10 ; Toda no. 202 .
In 1777 VAN-NHAC proclaimed himself king and appointed his brother HUE commander-in-chief. Rivalry soon broke out between the two brothers, and a fight ensued between their two armies, but a common danger brought them together again. In order to prevent such differences for the future, they divided, in 1785, the territories already conquered into three kingdoms, each kingdom to be governed by one of the brothers.
"bgriff99" comments on 15/11/2014: This piece has attributes of a high quality circulating forgery, except for this issue that's a blurry situation. Barker ought to have shown such a coin and discussed it a bit. The outer rims are hollowed out to make it lighter. The squares inside the character 'thong' are round because they are drilled out. There are other minutiae that aren't right, and the coin weight is extremely low.
The seed coin could have been made from sheet tin or a 24 mm original coin. There are abundant recasts, but not with the clarity and extensive tooling of this piece. The top cross-stroke of 'bao' is almost completely cut away from underneath. Its shape does not match original coins I've seen (or in Barker), but there are a lot of them. All the cutting is nicely visible (which is not so on original ones), and still professional, especially if from a wholly-made mother coin. Such a piece would have been made by mint workers on their own time, or more likely at an official mint wanting new mother cash that were lighter.
Although it appears to be brass, coins of this period still turn out to be of leaded bronze, or a mixture with some zinc added. It takes considerable skill, and a good percent of tin in the alloy to make such paper thin coins as these, but they did seem to have the knack.
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