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Sale 46
The Millennia Collection
| Lot |
Photo |
Description |
Realized |
Lot 876 |
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Annam (Viet Nam). Piastre - 7 Tien, Year 14 (1833). Sch-182; Dav-111. 27.17 grams. Minh Mang, 1820-1841. Small sun, large dragon series. Inscription naming king: "Minh Mang." Reverse: Leftward striding dragon; date by rear foot. Reeded edge. Lustrous, with handsome light toning, having delicate iridescence in the recesses. Scarce in this grade. NGC graded MS-62.
The chief large silver trade coin for the region.
Estimated Value $1,000 - 1,200.
View details and enlarged photos
| Realized
$2,530 |
Lot 877 |
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Annam (Viet Nam). Gold Piastre, ND (1841-1847). Fr-3; KM-283. 27.37 grams. Thieu Tri, 1841-1847. Inscription naming king: "Thieu Tri Thong Bao." Reverse: Leftward striding dragon; tiny crescentic banker's mark by rear foot. Lustrous, with areas of deep red toning. Impressive and Rare. NGC graded AU-55.
An early "native" gold trade coin for the region.
Thieu Tri was one of the Vietnamese emperors indirectly responsible for bringing Vietnam under French colonial rule. In the early nineteenth century, emperors Gia Long (ruled 1802-1820) and his son Minh Mang (ruled 1820-1841) attempted to copy Chinese administrative concepts and methods (which may also account for their expansion into the area of a gold trade coinage). Even the palace complex at Hue was a scaled down copy of Peking's Forbidden City. From the 1830s, there were outbreaks of rebellion at the amount of bureaucratic intervention in daily life, the rigidity of the mandarin system, and the high level of taxation. Because of the focus on Confucian models, the growing challenge of the West was recognized by few and was not addressed. French Catholic missionaries had been proselytizing in Vietnam since the mid-17th century. They had assisted Gia Long with men and resources against the Tay Son rebels and helped him establish his imperial dynasty. The number of Catholic converts continued to grow until there were some 450,000 by the middle of the 19th century. Suddenly Christianity posed a threat to Confucian authority. Minh Mang, then Thieu Tri and Tu Duc (ruled 1847-1883) decided that Christianity must be repressed. In a series of campaigns, thousands of Christians and their priests were killed and their villages razed. The door was opened for French intervention, which was not long in coming. In 1859, a French naval expedition seized Saigon. By 1862, Saigon and its three surrounding provinces were ceded to the French, and by 1885, the remainder of Vietnam was conquered and, along with Cambodia and Laos, became French Indochina. The legacy of French colonialism was a nightmare of administrative, economic, and social divisiveness which would haunt France, and subsequently, the United States in the 20th century.
Estimated Value $6,000 - 7,000.
Illustrated in Money of The World, coin 133.
View details and enlarged photos
| Realized
$25,300 |
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