NEW BOOK: ANNAM ZINC COIN VARIETIES

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V24 2021 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 24, Number 4, January 24, 2021, Article 7

"I have completed a pamphlet in spreadsheet format of my collection of 320 varieties of zinc coinage from Annam. Many varieties are not in Zeno.ru website nor Historical Coinages of Vietnam of Mr. Barker. I would like to share this spreadsheet information with collectors of this area.

"The pamphlet assumes that the collector understands the terminology of cash coins to identify the coinage in the Barker book. The varieties are arranged first by the reign title, then by the marks on the reverse. From this start, I group by variations in the obverse characters and the coin's outer and inner diameter (diameter from inner rim to inner rim). I have taken photos of the coins but the internet limits of sending this amount of data."

The zinc coinages of Vietnam seems to be an area of numismatics with little written in Western literature about the myriad varieties. To help me arrange types in my collection, I arranged coins in a spreadsheet format. To help communicate varieties some standard measurements were made and some standard descriptions of the calligraphy in my language attempted.

The fairly recent book, The Historical Cash Coins of Viet Nam, by Mr. Barker was a benefit to give general numbering of each era but omitted many coin varieties. The website Zeno.ru has very few of these types also.

The Barker book is used for a start in numbering, but when a coin isn't found in the Barker book the helpful Vietnamese coin finding book A Working Aid for Collectors of Annamese Coins by John A. Novak is useful for his numbers. This is my attempt to help other collectors to organize a collection, and maybe start a communication to add varieties that I haven't seen to this knowledge base.

The actual dating of the beginning of zinc coinage is unclear. Annam started minting coins in its own right in the tenth century A.D., but zinc coins started probably in the 17th century. The isolation of zinc metal from the European point of view was ca. 1728 in England but the complex process used, probably was adopted from an Asian source from earlier. Coins' reign titles also imply eras a century before this 18 th century date. The Annamese minters usually used the reign title of a known era to give a hint of the date, but may have minted coins after the era. Another date enigma is that a few coins exist with an unknown reign title. This adds some numismatic excitement to the study of these coins.

The varieties of zinc coinage extend beyond just the different reign titles and requires close looking at the actual calligraphy for variations. Some observations of this coinage that I will make must be viewed through the eyes of a non-writer of oriental calligraphy.