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 side of the coin features the four Chinese characters “Thiệu Thánh Nguyên Bảo” (紹聖元寶) engraved in a clockwise order, in a somewhat rigid and unrefined style of regular script calligraphy.
The upper edge of the coin’s reverse side bears the character “Chính” (正), which may indicate the minting location of the coin.
“Thiệu Thánh Nguyên Bảo” (紹聖元寶) was directly modelled after the “Shaosheng Yuanbao” coins issued under the second reign title of Emperor Zhezong of the Northern Song dynasty in China, used between AD 1094 and 1098. Given this temporal reference, the Vietnamese imitation of this coin could not have been minted earlier than the Lý dynasty period in Vietnamese history (AD 1009–1225).
