The list of coin hoards in Vietnam comprises significant archaeological hoards of coins, other types of coinages (e.g. sycees) or objects related to coins discovered in Vietnam. The history of Vietnamese currency, independent from China, dates back to the Đinh dynasty period with the Thái Bình Hưng Bảo (太平興寶), produced from 970 to 979. The Vietnamese produced cash coins similar to the ones produced in China and circulated alongside Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Ryukyuan cash coins brought into the country through international trade. Cash coins continued to be produced in Vietnam until the 1940s under the Nguyễn dynasty. Through international trade foreign currencies such as Spanish dollars and Mexican reals were brought into the country by merchants and these coins would continue to circulate in Vietnam until the French colonial administration outlawed their usage on January 1, 1906, in favour of their own coinage, while Vietnamese cash coins were permitted to continue circulating. Despite the presence of coinages barter persisted until the 20th century. Following its declaration of independence in 1945 the Democratic Republic of Vietnam started issuing its own currency in 1946, while allowing cash coins to circulate until 1948. In 1952 the piastre was abolished and replaced with the South Vietnamese đồng in the south in 1953. Following Vietnamese reunification in 1976 the North Vietnamese đồng and Liberation đồng would continue to circulate in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam until May 2, 1978, when they were replaced by a new national currency.
The coins uncovered in Vietnam includes both native coinages as well as Chinese cash coins in large numbers as Vietnam was a part of China as well as through historical trade with China.
Vietnamese cash coins are also sometimes found in other countries because of trade, such as a Trần dynasty cash coin being unearthed in Hakodate, Japan.
Overview
In modern Vietnam the supply of undiscovered cash coins is rapidly declining as large amounts of Vietnamese cash coins were excavated during the 1980s and 1990s, in Vietnam the excavation of antiques such as cash coins is an industry in itself and the cash coins are mostly being dug up by farmers. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975 a large number of metal detectors numbering in the many thousands were left behind in the former area of South Vietnam which helped fuel the rise of this industry. The antique bronze industry is mostly concentrated in small rural villages where farmers rent metal detectors to search their own lands for bronze antiques to then either sell as scrap or to dealers, these buyers purchase lumps of cash coins by either kilogramme or ton to then hire skilled people to search through these lumps of cash coins for sellable specimens, these coins are then sold to other dealers in Vietnam, China, and Japan. During the zenith of the coin recovery business in Vietnam the number of bulk coins found on a monthly basis was fifteen tons but only roughly fifteen kilogrammes of those coins were sellable and the rest of the coins would melted down as scrap metal. As better metal detectors that could search deeper more Vietnamese cash coins were discovered but in modern times the supply of previously undiscovered Vietnamese cash coins is quickly diminishing.Sudokuone (Vietnam's Imperial History as Seen Through its Currency) The Supply of Vietnamese Coins by Dr. R. Allan Barker. Retrieved: April 3, 2018.
In modern times many Vietnamese cash coins are found in sunken shipwrecks which are mandated by Vietnamese law to be the property of the Vietnamese government as salvaged ships of which the owner was unknown belong to the state.
List of coin hoards in Vietnam
List of coin hoards in Vietnam Date of discovery Place of discovery Image Content Long description of the find and notes Date(if known) Current location(if known) 1942 Óc Eo, Thoại Sơn District, An Giang Province, French Cochinchina Roman coins from the 2nd century. French archaeologist Louis Malleret is credited with having unearthed Roman imperial coinage at the Óc Eo archaeological in 1942. The attribution of this find is dubious as some sources claim that Malleret had purchased them from the locals of the area rather than excavating the coins by himself. 1994 Thái Nguyên A jar filled with cash coins. In the year 1994 a jar was discovered in Thái Nguyên which contained cash coins produced during 12th–16th centuries. The State Bank of Vietnam, Hanoi January 2007 Perfume River, Huế, Thừa Thiên-Huế Province Various types of cash coins. A large number of antique cash coins had been found in the rivers that are located near the former capital city of Huế. The cash coins that have been found at these rivers include Tây Sơn dynasty Quang Trung Thông Bảo (光中通寶) and Cảnh Thịnh Thông Bảo (景盛通寶) cash coins, Nguyễn dynasty Gia Long Thông Bảo (嘉隆通寶) and Minh Mạng Thông Bảo (明命通寶) cash coins made of copper and zinc, as well as presentation coins made from gold or silver. The discovery of many cash coins over the years has been used as evidence that the Thừa Thiên-Huế region was a central hub for trade. July 5, 2007 Lệ Thủy District, Quảng Bình Province 20 kilograms of Chinese Tang dynasty cash coins. A scrap metal collector named Nguyen Duc Dung found a hoard of Tang dynasty cash coins, while digging in a rice field on July 5, 2007. Tran Anh Tuan, an artefact expert and the director of the Quảng Bình Provincial Museum, noted that Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶) cash coins circulated in Vietnam during this period as Vietnam was a part of China at the time. Nguyen Duc Dung was able to sell the cash coins for ₫ 200,000 (US$ 12.50) per kilogram, which had a total value ₫ 4,000,00 (US$250). July 11, 2007 Hàm Ninh commune, Quảng Ninh District, Quảng Bình Province Chinese Tang dynasty cash coins. On July 11, 2007, three refuse collectors had unearthed five jars, which contained 30 kilograms of Tang dynasty period Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶) cash coins in the Hàm Ninh commune, Quảng Ninh District, Quảng Bình Province. September 2007 Hải Quy commune, Hải Lăng District, Quảng Trị province 100 kilogrammes of Chinese cash coins. According to Le Duc Tho, the deputy director of the Quảng Trị Museum noted that a jar containing cash coins weighing approximately 100 kilograms was unearthed by local farmers while they were working in Hải Quy commune, Hải Lăng District, Quảng Trị province. All the artifacts from the hoard are intact except for the upper part of the jar, which was broken upon discovery. The Chinese cash coins found inside of the jar dated from the 16th century to the 18th century. Le Duc Tho noted that in the past few years a lot of Chinese and Vietnamese cash coins had been unearthed in the Quảng Trị province, particularly in the Gio Ling and Triệu Phong Districts, but this hoard was the first time this type of jar had been found (nearly) intact. The Quảng Trị Museum November 2007 Hà Tây village, Quảng Trị province 35 kilogrammes of Vietnamese cash coins. It was reported by the local newspaper Saigon Liberation that 35 kilogrammes of Vietnamese cash coins were unearthed in the province of Quảng Trị in the year 2007. The discovered cash coins dated from the 9th century until the 15th century. The cash coins were unearthed by a local villager, who was scavenging for rubble iron and steel left from the Vietnam War, in Hà Tây village. Later a man named Nguyen Du Dac purchased the coins and donated them to the Quảng Trị museum. The cash coins unearthed were contained inside of a glazed terracotta jar and most of them tend to come from several of Chinese dynasties. Furthermore, the terracotta jar also contained a number of rare Vietnamese cash coins that were cast between the years 960 and 1454. 15th century The Quảng Trị Museum 2008 Kiến Thụy District, Haiphong 52.9 kilogrammes of Chinese and Vietnamese cash coins. 52.9 kilogrammes of Chinese and Vietnamese cash coins being unearthed in a cemetery in Haiphong in 2008. The cash coins were discovered by workers and located inside of two glazed terra-cotta jars at the archeological site of Go Gao, an area which housed a food warehouse during the feudal period. The discovered cash coins circulated from the 14th century to the 15th century. Most of the cash coins were issued by the Chinese Hongwu Emperor and the Vietnamese monarch Lê Nhân Tông, according to an appraisal from the Hải Phòng Museum.