This is a brass coin minted during the reign of Lê Hiển Tông of the Later Lê dynasty, bearing the era title “Cảnh Hưng Thông Bảo.”
The coin adopts the traditional round-cornered-square-hole format characteristic of the Sinic cultural sphere. The obverse features the inscription “Cảnh Hưng Thông Bảo” in regular script, arranged vertically from top to bottom and read right to left. In the character “Cảnh,” the radical “亠” is joined with “口,” and the horizontal stroke ends with an upward flick. In “Hưng,” the component “同” is rendered as a variant resembling the character “月” with an additional horizontal stroke. In “Thông,” the “辶” radical is written with a single bend following a dot, and the “甬” component begins with a “マ”-like stroke whose connecting lines form a triangle, a structure referred to as “triangular Thông” (三角通). The “Bảo” character features a left component rendered as “王,” and the right component “尔” is written as a diagonal stroke followed by “人.” The script is relatively large, with all four characters connected to the central square hole; the characters “Hưng,” “Thông,” and “Bảo” are also linked to the outer rim. The reverse surface is plain and uninscribed.
During the reign of Emperor Lê Thái Tông, due to tax collectors frequently rejecting low-quality coins when collecting levies, a decree was issued stipulating that any coin that could be strung together would be deemed acceptable for circulation. This policy, designed to prevent corrupt officials from harassing honest citizens, unintentionally laid the groundwork for a gradual decline in coin quality. Once all coins were mandated to circulate regardless of quality, the acceptability of coins in actual market transactions ceased to be a primary concern. Instead, the emphasis shifted to whether a given quantity of copper could produce a greater number of coins, thereby increasing profit. This situation further encouraged private minting, as illicit producers were more inclined to purchase high-quality official coins, melt them down, and recast them privately.
By the time of the Lê Restoration, the Trịnh and Nguyễn lords were engaged in fierce rivalry. As both regimes sought to ensure their survival, they simultaneously initiated border conflicts to expand their influence and encouraged both domestic and foreign trade—especially with Japan—as a means of consolidating wealth. The frequent warfare led to growing military expenditures, while expanding trade created massive demand for currency. The flourishing commercial activities, in turn, stimulated greater monetary usage within the realm. During this period, taxes, corvée labour, and requisitions could be commuted into monetary payments. Moreover, peasants displaced by warfare often converted surplus produce into coin for easier mobility during flight.
In the early years of the Cảnh Hưng era, the Cảnh Hưng Thông Bảo coin was first cast in the capital, Kinh Đô. Later, official mints across various regions began minting as well, despite ongoing prohibitions against private coinage, which proved difficult to enforce. In AD 1753 (the fourteenth year of the Cảnh Hưng era), in response to widespread illicit minting, Lord Trịnh Doanh ordered the closure of all regional mints, retaining only the Nhật Chiêu and Cổ Xá mints in the capital. Nevertheless, illegal minting persisted. By AD 1760 (the twenty-first year of Cảnh Hưng), due to the capital’s inability to meet the growing demand for coinage, Emperor Lê Hiển Tông was compelled to acknowledge the de facto operation of regional mints, permitting their continued activity provided that the place of production was recorded for quality supervision.
In AD 1762 (the twenty-third year of Cảnh Hưng), Lord Trịnh Doanh, gravely ill and politically estranged from the imperial family, was succeeded by Trịnh Sâm, who assumed full control over national affairs. From that point on, central authority steadily declined, and low-quality official and privately minted coins flooded the market. Concurrently, numerous uprisings erupted across the country, dramatically increasing military expenditures. Emperor Lê Hiển Tông was forced to repeatedly change coin names and designs in an attempt to replace debased coins that had lost public confidence. The extensive circulation of copper coins, combined with declining productivity due to wartime devastation, led to inflation and a further decline in coin value—ironically fuelling even more coin production.
Thus, over the more than forty years of Emperor Cảnh Hưng’s lengthy reign, these intersecting contradictions culminated in what later became known as the “Cảnh Hưng Coin Phenomenon”—a period marked by an unprecedented proliferation of coin types and extreme variation in design, rarely seen elsewhere in monetary history.
Lê Hiển Tông, born Lê Duy Diêu, reigned from AD 1740 to 1786 and was the longest-serving emperor of the Later Lê dynasty. Early in his reign, he maintained a cooperative relationship with Trịnh Doanh, the ruling lord. However, after Trịnh Doanh’s death, his son Trịnh Sâm, out of jealousy toward Crown Prince Lê Duy Vĩ, alienated the emperor and ultimately forced him to depose the prince, who was later executed. In AD 1786, the Tây Sơn forces under Nguyễn Huệ launched a campaign against the Trịnh lords under the pretext of “Supporting the Lê, Eliminating the Trịnh.” The Trịnh regime collapsed, ending its political dominance. Though Lê Hiển Tông publicly welcomed the Trịnh’s downfall, he privately expressed concern over the Tây Sơn threat and warned his grandson, the heir apparent, to be vigilant.
During this era, the Trịnh lords governed the north, while the Nguyễn lords controlled the south, creating a long-standing civil divide known as the Trịnh–Nguyễn conflict or the “Northern and Southern Courts.” Despite political fragmentation, the Revival Lê period saw considerable cultural, artistic, and economic development. Confucian education and the civil service examination system continued, establishing this era as one of Vietnam’s cultural golden ages. In AD 1788, the Tây Sơn uprising overthrew the Lê dynasty; the following year, Emperor Lê Chiêu Thống fled to Qing China, marking the formal end of the Revival Lê dynasty.
