Item number: A3032

Year: ND

Material: Bronze

Size: 21.4 x 21.3 x 0.5 mm

Weight: 1.8 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. On the obverse, the four Chinese characters “Thái Bình Thánh Bảo” (太平聖寶) are engraved in regular script, arranged in the sequence of top, bottom, right, and left. The reverse is plain, with no inscriptions or decorative motifs.

After establishing the Đinh dynasty—the first unified imperial regime in Vietnamese history—its founder Đinh Bộ Lĩnh adopted “Thái Bình” as his reign title. However, the coinage issued under his rule bore the inscription “Đại Bình Hưng Bảo”. In later centuries, during the 17th-century division of Vietnam into the Trịnh lords in the North and the Nguyễn lords in the South, the Nguyễn regime in Quảng Nam and the Chinese-descended ruler Mạc Cửu, who expanded Vietnamese influence into the Mekong Delta and established Hà Tiên (Hà Tiên Protectorate), also minted coins inscribed “Thái Bình Thông Bảo”.

物件編號: A3032

年代: 不明

材質: 青銅

尺寸: 21.4 x 21.3 x 0.5 mm

重量: 1.8 g

來源: 斯賓克拍賣行 2023

這是一枚發行年代不明的越南錢幣，由於越南歷史上多次陷入分裂，即便是統一的王朝時期，地方上的豪強也經常有自行鑄幣的現象。在這樣的社會背景下，出現許多沒辦法跟統治者年號對應的錢幣，這些錢幣被稱為「脫譜錢」。

錢幣形制為深受中國影響的方孔錢，材質為青銅。錢幣正面按照上、下、右、左的順序，依序以楷書漢字書法鐫刻「太平聖寶」四字。錢幣背面為光背，沒有任何圖案或文字。

越南歷史上第一個統一王朝的奠基者丁部領在創建丁朝之後，以「太平」作為其統治的年號，不過其鑄造的錢幣為「大平興寶」。後世公元17世紀，當越南陷入「北鄭南阮」分裂局面之際，南方的廣南阮氏政權和華裔鄚玖在湄公河三角洲開拓的河仙鎮也曾鑄造過「太平通寶」。