Between 1878 and 1885, the Cochinchina piastre was the currency of the French colony of Cochinchina. It was replaced by the French Indochinese piastre after the creation of a unified administration for Cochinchina and the other French protectorates and colonies in the Far East (Annam, Cambodia and Tonkin) on 22 December 1885.
In the year 1868 the price for a lunch at a restaurant in rue Catinat in Saigon (present day Đồng Khởi Street in Ho Chi Minh City) cost one piastre while a dinner with wine cost 1 piastre and 25 cents. [1]
The main currency of French Cochinchina (like that of Đại Nam) in the early colonial period was the Mexican peso, an average silver Mexican peso weighed 26.94 grams and at the time the exchange rate fluctuated between 5.37 and 6.30 French francs on the private marker, while the French government used 5.55 francs to 1 peso as the official exchange rate. [1] Mexican pesos with Chinese chopmarks were also accepted at lower values in Saigon because of a large number of Chinese counterfeit pesos being produced. [1] During this period Chinese merchants became more skilled in figuring out which Mexican pesos were fake while Chinese fakes also became less easy to be discovered. [1] Other than Mexican pesos the population of French Cochinchina used silver sycees which usually had a value between 16 and 18 Mexican pesos (or between 80 and 100 French francs) a piece, these sycees were often rectangular in shape and only rarely diverging values, the production of these silver sycees was mostly in the hands of the government of the Nguyễn dynasty. [1] During this era gold coins and sycees were extremely rare on the French Cochinchinese market. [1]
The Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris (CNEP), which was already operating in some other French colonies, opened a branch in the city of Saigon in 1862. The accounting of the colony was kept in cents and French Francs but they had to accumulate and have Mexican pesos available for both local and foreign merchants. The governor of French Cochinchina issued a decree that all coins of 8 real (known to the French as the "piastre") would be accepted as having the weight of 24.24 of fine silver while every non-chopped silver peso weighed at least 24.50 grams. Vietnamese merchants quickly took this opportunity to purchase chopped Mexican pesos from China and independent Đại Nam and sold them to the French authorities for a profit. The French governor of Cochinchina was forced to rescind this decree and all coins went back to being traded at their actual weights. [2]
The general exchange rate between silver French coins and Annamese sapèques was not favourable for the French as Cochinchinese money changers used an exchange rate of 8 tiền in sapèques per franc, which placed a disadvantage to the franc as a tiền was only worth 10 cents thus losing 20 cents per franc in the exchange. [1] Meanwhile, the exchange rates for Mexican pesos to sapèques were rather favourable. [1] On March 5, 1863, the silver French Francs and copper Centime coins were made legal tender for commercial transactions. Then the governor of Cochinchina officially valued the 5 Francs coins at 90% of a piastre, but its intrinsic value was actually 93%. Another decree that had to be rescinded. [2]
During the colonial era in French Cochinchina Chinese sapèques (known as lý) were exclusively used as casino tokens by gambling houses and weren't used for other purchases unless trade was being conducted with Qing China. The general conversion rate was 1000 lý = 1 lạng = 7.50 French francs. [1] The sapèques which circulated at the time of French Cochinchina were made from zinc and had a very distinctive square centre hole allowing for them to be strung into strings of 1000 zinc sapèques or 600 copper-alloy sapèques, these strings were known as quán tiền (貫錢) in Vietnamese and as ligatures or chapalets in French. [1] Each string is further subdivided into 10 tiền consisting of 60 sapèques, these coins were valued in their quantity rather than in weight. [1] These coins usually featured the reign or era title of the reigning Nguyễn monarch and were extremely poorly manufactured with bad alloys causing the strings to often break with many sapèques breaking resulting in considerable losses for their owners due to their brittleness. [1] Charles Lemire described the heavy nature and difficult mobility of strings of sapèques as "a currency worthy of Lycurgus of Sparta" and non numerantur, sed ponderantur ("They are not counted but weighed"). [1] Around the time that Charles Lemire entered Saigon around 1868 the presence of sapèques in circulation in Cochinchina has become less common but it was stated that the locals still preferred them over the European-style copper and silver currency introduced by the French. In rural areas of French Cochinchina sapèques were even more preferred over the piastre. [1] The sapèque was especially beneficial for people who both earn and spend little money as sapèques could purchase items which were worth less than a cent, or even half, a quarter or a sixth of a cent due to their small denominations. [1] The products described by Lemire which were of a value smaller than a cent in the year 1868 include an areca nut, betel leaves, tobacco, cigarettes, a single cup of tea, a single slice of pineapple, an orange fruit, a jackfruit, a fragment of sugar cane, a spoonful of fish sauce, or a palm leaf hat. [1] These products were all purchasable with a small number of sapèques which is why these coins continued to be preferred in less wealthy areas. [1] Because of the inconveniences associated with sapèques the European population of French Cochinchina found the introduction of the French franc to be essential for their daily payments and purchases. [1]
The accounting of the Saigon branch of the Comptoir Nationale d’Escompte de Paris was kept in centimes and francs coins, but the organisation kept 4 real and 8 real coins available for merchants. [3]
On 10 April 1862 a degree made the Spanish and Mexican real legal tender in French Cochinchina. [3] The French governor in charge of Cochinchina decreed that a coin of 8 Reals, regardless of its weight, was to be valued at 24.24 grams of fine silver, when each non-chopmarked coin had at least 24.50 grams. [3] Merchants used this as a loophole to trade in their chopmarked Mexican pesos for non-chopmarked ones at the French Treasury and made a huge profit off of it. [3] Eventually the governor rescinded this degree and all silver coins were traded based on their weights and intrinsic value again rather than their nominal value. [3]
On 5 March 1863, the colonial governor of French Cochinchina had made silver French francs and copper centime coins legal tender for commercial transactions within the territory. [3] Then the French colonial governor had issued a degree which officially valued the 5 francs coins at 90% of a piastre, but its intrinsic value was actually 93% of a Piastre, which allowed for abuse by merchants, which made this another decree that had to be rescinded. [3]
Eventually the French government released the unpunched 1 centime coins into circulation in French Cochinchina alongside other metropolitan French coins such as the centimes and francs. [4] However, these coins all saw very little circulation among the local Vietnamese people, the metropolitan French coins were mostly used by the European population of French Cochinchina, while the Vietnamese merchants preferred Spanish dollars and Mexican reals in order to conduct trade in East Asia where these coins were the norm. [4]
Up to 1878, French colonies used the French franc, which was then on the gold standard. The monetary policies of Cochinchina, however, had to balance the needs of trade with France and other Europeans against the needs of trade in Asia, where the silver standard predominated. To this end France introduced the piastre in Cochinchina, which was based on the silver standard and was not tied to the French franc. This set Cochinchina, and after 1885 other French colonies in Indo-China, apart from French colonies in Africa and the Pacific, which did not have currencies independent of the French franc until the CFA franc and the CFP franc were introduced after the Second World War. [5]
In 1878 1,000,000 French 1 centime coins were brought to the Saigon arsenal and were to be made into sapèques by having them holed and be worth 1⁄1000 piastre, however the local population rejected these coins. The Vietnamese zinc and copper alloy cash coins continued to be the primary circulating coins for the Cochinchinese people, which were just right for a population who were generally extremely poor. Their need for coins was only a minor part of their lives and barter was much more common in the region at the time. And all cash coins that did circulate were bartered according to their current intrinsic values. After the unpunched 1 centime and other French franc coins were introduced they would see little circulation with the local population, while the merchants still preferred the Mexican peso for their trade. [2] [6]
The governor of French Cochinchina established a study group to design coins which would be accepted by the local population on December 24, 1878 by decree. [6] This study group submitted designs, denominations, metals and weights of the sapèque, 1 cent, 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, and piastre coins with the text "Cochinchine Française" on them, these designs were officially accepted by decrees issued on April 7 & 22, 1879 by the governor. [6] All coins except for the 1 piastre coin were introduced, the piastre would only be introduced as part of the French Indochinese piastre later and Spanish and Mexican silver coins served as the piastres in Cochinchina. [6] The "second" French-made sapèque of this series saw considerable more circulation than the "first" French-made sapèque, but was still largely disliked by the local populace who preferred the cast cash coins issued by the Nguyễn dynasty. [2] [6]
1878: Copper Sapèque (1⁄1000 Piastre) Bordeaux Mint, holed in Saigon arsenal.
1879: Copper Sapèque (1⁄500 Piastre), 1 Cent; Silver 10 Cents, 20 Cents, 50 Cents, 1 Piastre (Essai) Paris Mint
1884: Copper 1 Cent; Silver 10 Cents, 20 Cents, 50 Cents. Paris Mint
1885: All denominations were minted in PROOF quality in limited quantity.
The sapèque was the French colonial version of the cash, [7] like the Chinese cash, which the French allowed the local Nguyễn emperors to continue imitating, it has a square hole and only inscriptions for its types. Now, the inscriptions are in both French and Vietnamese (written with Chinese characters) and the coins are struck not cast. [8] Larger copper centimes and the silver coins of French Cochinchina all showed a seated personification of the Republic from the Great Seal of France. As in the seal, she has her left arm on a rudder and a fasces in her right hand, but now an anchor is placed behind the rudder and there are rice plants in the background. Jacques-Jean Barre engraved the seal and his son A. Barre designed this coin. His name, BARRE, appears below the personification's foot. The A mint mark of Monnaie de Paris appears on these coins along with the marks of its master and chief engraver, which changed between the beginning and end of the issue. [9]
| Coins of the Cochinchina piastre | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Denomination | Obverse | Reverse | Obverse | Reverse | Composition | ||||||||
| 1 Sapèque (1⁄1000 piastre) |  |  | Republique Française; Marianne; date | Liberté * Égalité * Fraternité; denomination | Copper | ||||||||
| 2 Sapèque (1⁄500 piastre) |  |  | Cochinchine Française; date | 大法國之安南; 當二 | Copper | ||||||||
| 1 cent |  |  | Republique Française; Lady Liberty; date | Cochinchine Française; 百分之一; Poids 10 Gr; denomination | Copper | ||||||||
| 10 cents |  |  | Republique Française; Lady Liberty; date | Cochinchine Française; Titre 0,900. Poids 2,721; denomination | Silver (.900) | ||||||||
| 20 cents |  |  | Republique Française; Lady Liberty; date | Cochinchine Française; Titre 0,900. Poids 5,443; denomination | Silver (.900) | ||||||||
| 50 cents |  |  | Republique Française; Lady Liberty; date | Cochinchine Française; Titre 0,900. Poids 13,607; denomination | Silver (.900) | ||||||||
The banknotes of 5, 20 and 100 Dollars/Piastres, issued by the Banque de l'Indochine and similar in design to later French Indochina notes , are currently extremely rare.
The French Treasury in Saigon, and later in the protectorates, issued "checks" denominated in 50, 100, 500, 1000, and 1500 French francs in an attempt to greatly improve trade between French Cochinchina and Metropolitan France. And until the year 1879, the French merchants brought in metropolitan French franc coins and banknotes for use in the colony of Cochinchina so the "checks" denominated in Francs were very useful to them. The governor's decree of January 25, 1875 authorized the establishment of a privately capitalised bank which would hold a monopoly of issuing banknotes for the colony. The largest shareholder of this bank was the Comptoir National d’Escompte, which was also the first French bank to have a branch in the city Saigon. This newly established bank was named by far-sighted individual as the Banque De l’Indo-Chine (Bank of Indo-China). [2]
The first series of notes issued by the Banque de l’Indo-Chine had denominations in 5, 20 and 100 dollars/piastres and were issued in late 1875. These banknotes show that the French had finally accepted the fact that the Mexican 8 real coins (referred to as "dollar" in English and "piastre" in French) were the dominant trade coins in Cochinchina, which was made official in 1878. The faces are in French and the backs are in Vietnamese written in chữ Hán. The earliest Hải Phòng notes were only legal tender in the protectorates of Tonkin and Laos, while the Saigon notes were accepted in the colony of Cochinchina and the protectorates of Annam and Cambodia. Eventually these banknotes were accepted throughout French Indochina. [2]
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The Bảo Đại Thông Bảo was a round Copper-alloy coin with a square hole produced by the Nguyễn dynasty under French protection and was the last cash coin produced both in Vietnam and the world, this ended a long series of cast Vietnamese coinage that started with the Thái Bình Hưng Bảo in 970. The cast Bảo Đại Thông Bảo were produced at the Thanh Hóa Mint, while the machine-struck variants were produced in Hanoi by the colonial French government. These coins bear the name of Emperor Bảo Đại who ascended the throne in 1926 but continued the production of the earlier Khải Định Thông Bảo (啓定通寶) that bore his father's name until 1933 when he ordered the production of new coins with his reign name, which was normal as previous Vietnamese emperors also kept producing cash coins with the inscription of their predecessors for a period of time. The cast smaller Bảo Đại Thông Bảo cash coins with blank reverses were only valued at 1⁄600 piastre.
The Khải Định Thông Bảo was a French Indochinese sapèque coin produced from 1921 until 1933, the design of the coin was round with a square hole that was used for stringing them together. Khải Định became Emperor of Annam in 1916 the funding for the production of new cash coins was reduced by the Hanoi Mint which lead to the demand of the Vietnamese market for low value denominations to not be met, furthermore, after Hanoi reduced funding for the Thanh Hóa Mint, which until that time was producing enough low denomination cast cash coins to meet the market's demands, which caused most, but not all, of the production of cash coins at the mint to cease in 1920. In response a new committee was formed in Hanoi which ordered the creation of machine-struck Khải Định Thông Bảo cash coins, these are the first machine-struck four character Thông Bảo (通寳) coins in Vietnam with the reigning emperor's name as the French government had prior tried to introduce a Cochinchinese 2 sapèque coin that continued under French Indochina that weighed 2.05 grams and had a nominal value of 1⁄500 piastre, later the colonial government of the French Protectorate of Tonkin had unsuccessfully tried to introduce a zinc milled sapèque produced by the Paris Mint with a nominal value of 1⁄600 piastre from 1905 until 1906. Unlike the earlier attempts at producing machine-struck cash coins by the colonial French authorities the Khải Định Thông Bảo proved to be much more successful as the first series had a production of 27,629,000 coins while the second series greatly exceeded this with around 200,000,000 coins produced in Huế, Haiphong, and Hanoi. The Khải Định Thông Bảo continued to be produced long after the death of Emperor Khải Định under his successor Bảo Đại until it was phased out by the Bảo Đại Thông Bảo (保大通寳) in 1933.
Tự Đức Thông Bảo was an inscription used on different coins made from various metals and alloys during the reign of Emperor Tự Đức. The coinage of Tự Đức saw the introduction of the term văn (文) which was an accounting unit used for copper-alloy cash coins denominating their worth in number of zinc cash coins with a weight of 6 phần.
The Vietnamese văn as a denomination for Vietnamese cash coins was used from 1868 until 1945 during the reign of the Nguyễn dynasty. The inspiration to introduce the văn may have been to emulate the Chinese wén used on contemporary Qing dynasty cash coins which had just become a fiat currency, however unlike the Chinese system where all Chinese cash coins were cast from the same metals and the wén was the primary unit of account for coins made of the same metals, the Vietnamese system used the văn as a basic number currency symbol indicating how much zinc cash coins a brass or bronze cash coin was worth, the Vietnamese cash coins-based currency system used the mạch (陌) and quán (貫) as units of account that could be based on either zinc cash coins or copper-alloy cash coins depending on the region or context. It was continued to be used as a measurement for zinc cash coins when the French Indochinese piastre was introduced, after which the term still appeared on Vietnamese cash coins and represented a subdivision of copper-alloy cash coins rather than the piastre, this was known in French as the sapèque en zinc, as the production of zinc coinage was ceased by the Imperial government of the Nguyễn dynasty around the year 1871.
A string of cash coins refers to a historical Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Ryukyuan, and Vietnamese currency unit that was used as a superunit of the Chinese cash, Japanese mon, Korean mun, Ryukyuan mon, and Vietnamese văn currencies. The square hole in the middle of cash coins served to allow for them to be strung together in strings. The term would later also be used on banknotes and served there as a superunit of wén (文).
| Preceded by: Mexican dollar, Vietnamese cash Reason: decree of January 21, 1875 chartering Banque de l'Indochine | Currency of French Cochincnina 1878 – 1885 | Succeeded by: French Indochina Piastre Reason: creation of French Indochina Ratio: at par |
Vietnamese currency | ||
|---|---|---|
| Imperial Vietnam |    | |
| Colonial Vietnam | ||
| Democratic Republic | ||
| South Vietnam | ||
| Socialist Republic | ||
| Exonumia | ||
See also: Economy of Vietnam | ||
