I have translated into English an article by Francois Thierry. It first appeared in the Revue Numismatique 1999 pages 269-317. It is not the entire article. I left out the introduction which was a brief history of the Tu Duc reign and the last section that dealt with prices and salaries. The section that I translated would be of interest to coin collectors. I have also added a few of my own notes and images to the original article. To see the article you must have Adobe reader installed. http://www.geocities.com/htxbid/articlethierry.pdf note: It is in PDF format and about 37 pages. It may take a few minutes to upload by dial-up access.
Thanks Vietcoins, I have a feeling there aren't many collectors of Vietnam coins here but I bet if you were to post a few photos with descriptions and history,you could stir up some interest.I have seen a couple at my local coin shop and nearly bought one,a Ho Chi Minh silver colored base metal coin about the size of a US half dollar,dated,I think from the late 1940's.What were the dates of the Tu Duc Reign.I'm not familiar with it.
I went to a website and looked at a variety of Tu Duc's,very interesting.They are similar to Chinese cash coins.Now I need to get some.
Example of a Canh Thinh Presentation Coin (1792-1800) The Tu Duc "coin" you uploaded is a fantasy piece. There are many fakes and fanasties of the larger Vietnam coins. I have uploaded a Canh Thinh coin. These were really given out by the Emperor to subjects as gifts but they also had monetary value based on their weight. Most of these never circulated. The Canh Tinh coin is brass, 45 mm and 26.3 grams. This piece was cleaned by a previous owner. At the www.zeno.ru site are coin images from China, Japan, Vietnam and tons of other Asian counties. The sister site www.charm.ru has various articles on coins and amulets.