Vietnamese văn (currency unit)
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The Vietnamese văn (chữ Hán: 文; French: Sapèque) 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 (銅鐱, đồng kẽm) a brass or bronze cash coin (đồng điếu) 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,[1] 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.[2][3]
The French zinc sapèque was worth generally worth 1⁄600 of a piastre (a currency based on the Mexican peso) during the French domination period were primarily used in the French protectorate of Tonkin.[4] Meanwhile cash coins that circulated in the French protectorate of Annam tended to be made from copper-alloys and were valued higher than the Tonkinese zinc cash coins, these cash coins still typically used the văn currency unit.[5][3]
The Vietnamese term văn (文) would appear on the Thành Thái Thông Bảo (成泰通寶), Duy Tân Thông Bảo (維新通寶), and Bảo Đại Thông Bảo (保大通寶) cash coins produced under French rule, the last of these was officially produced until 1945.[6][7]