Numismatic tour of the French colonies: French Indochina

Greetings, and thank you for joining me on this numismatic tour of the French colonies. One of my major collecting interests is in coins from colonies and obscure places. Over the years I've gathered a lot of coins and I decided to scan some examples of them and share with the community here. I want to start by visiting some of the French colonies. The coins of France are rather blah in my opinion, but apparently they saved all their skill for their colonies, because various French colonies include examples of many of my favorite coins.

I plan to create different threads over the coming days focused on different French colonies, but I'm going to start today with French Indochina. French Indochina included the current countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. They were occupied by Japan during World War II, and it was never the same for the French rulers after that, with the various nations gaining their independence in the 1950s. My interest in this post is just the coins from the period of French control. I don't have an example of every type of coin to show, but here are some to give you an idea. Feel free to share yours as well. These coins seem to have increased in price a lot in recent years and trying to quickly assemble a collection can get expensive.

First off are various 1 and 5 cent coins. You would think it would be "centime," but according to Krause it is not. There are also 1/4 and 1/2 centime coins. I have a 1/2 centime but don't have a photo.

 

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Next up are 10 and 20 cent coins. There are also a few 50 cent coins but I don't own any. Earlier examples here are silver, but by the 1940s they were aluminum or copper nickel.

 

Next on the list is the big silver 1 piastre, along with a few with the name "Vietnam" instead of French Indochina. These are all among my favorites.

 

Finally are the coins of Laos. These are the only coins from Laos from the French period as far as I am aware.

 

I really like the 1888 1 Cent. Cant help staring at that 1908 1 Piastre either.

Great thread. Keep going!

 

Shit now i gotta buy an Indochina10 and 20 cent.

 

I think these fit into your topic. I believe this coin was struck in Vietnam.
The coin on the left was struck with some very worn dies.

 

Look what I found.

 

Cambodia. KM# 56. Paris mint.
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces4474.htm

 

These are great designs! I'm particularly fond of the Piastre.

 

I didn't include the Cambodian coins because I didn't know if they fell under the period of French control, but they deserve at least an honorable mention. Here's the other two.

 

Dragon, It is indeed Centime. Look on your 5 Cent. type coins. You'll notice a period after the 'T' in 'Cent.'. That means the abbreviated word "Cent." is short for Centime.
Don't put 100% faith in Krause or NGC. I have found them to be wrong and/or incomplete many times. Not that I'm any kind of expert.

And Yes, I enjoy collecting the French Indo Chine coins myself, but pretty much only the silver ones, especially the large Piasters. Autocorrect spells it that way. Others spell it Piastres.
You are absolutely correct that the values of these have gone up. I bought my first Piastre in about 2015, for only $14.00. I've bought many since, but recently I've had to slow down because of the rising values. High grade examples are going in the hundreds and more.
I was surprised at the low price I paid and that there were no other bidders. I conversed with the seller about that and he believed it was because so few people knew about them.

 

French Indochina. Vichy Regime.
1/4 cent 1942.

 

French Indochina. Vichy Regime.
1 cent 1943.

 

French Indochine.
1/2 cent 1935.

 

French Indochine.
50 cents 1946.

 

French Indochine.
1 cent 1941.

 

Federation Indochine.
1 piastre 1947.

 

French Indochine.
20 centimes 1945, aluminium.

 

Great looking set - I look forward to seeing the rest!

Tonkin was also part of French IndoChina, in the north of Vietnam. As far as I know, they only struck one coin (1/600th of a piastre), and it was heavily counterfeited. Here's a counterfeit example (I don't have a genuine one).