Digital museum showcasing the collection of worldwide legends over the years! 千古不朽博物館展示多年來收藏的世界傳奇故事!
Vietnam
Huyền Thông Đạo Bảo
越南
玄聰道寶
Item number: A3007
Year: ND
Material: Bronze
Size: 23.8 x 23.7 x 0.8 mm
Weight: 3.1 g
Provenance: Spink 2023
This is a Vietnamese coin of unknown date of issue. Due to the country’s frequent historical periods of political fragmentation, and even during times of dynastic unification, regional warlords and local elites often engaged in the independent minting of currency. Within this socio-political context, numerous coins emerged that cannot be correlated with any officially recognised reign title. Such coins are referred to in numismatic scholarship as “uncatalogued coins” (脫譜錢), denoting currency that falls outside the established historical and administrative records.
The coin follows the traditional Chinese-influenced square-holed cash coin design and is made of bronze. The obverse of the coin features the four Chinese characters “玄聰道寶” (Huyền Thông Đạo Bảo) inscribed in the sequence of top, bottom, right, and left. Among these, the character “道” on the right is rendered in cursive script, while the other three characters are written in regular script. The reverse is plain, with no inscriptions or decorative motifs.