French Indo Chine Coins

The piastre de commerce was the currency of French Indochina between 1885 and 1952. It was subdivided into 100 cent, each of 2~6 sapèque.
The name piastre (French pronunciation: ​[pjastʁ]), from Spanish pieces of eight (pesos), dates to the 16th century and has been used as the name of many different historical units of currency.
The currency of French Indochina was divided into the piastre, cent / centime, and sapèque units. One piastre equals 100 cents and one cent equals between 2 and 6 sapèques depending on the dynasty and reign era. According to that ratio, a French Indochinese piastre coin is worth from 200 to 600 traditional Vietnamese cash coins. The Obverse of the banknotes and coins were inscribed in the French language, while the reverse side had inscriptions written in Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese Latin script, Lao, and Khmer scripts, but sometimes only French inscriptions were written.
Prior to the arrival of the French in Indo-China in the second half of the 19th century, cash coins similar to those used in the provinces of China circulated in the area that is nowadays known as Vietnam. There was also a silver milled dragon coin and associated subsidiary coinage in circulation. The Tự Đức Thông Bảo dragon coin is believed to have been in imitation of the Spanish silver dollar or Philippine peso or Mexican peso which also circulated widely in the region at that time emanating from the Philippines as part of the Spanish East Indies of the Spanish colonial empire, however the dragon dollars were worth less because the fineness of the silver was less than that in the Spanish and Mexican dollars. In the region that is nowadays Cambodia and Laos, the Siamese coinage circulated and Cambodia had its own regional varieties of the Siamese Tical (Thai Baht).
The French began their Indo-Chinese empire in 1862 with Cochinchina which is the area around the Mekong Delta and Saigon, and which is nowadays the extreme southern part of Vietnam. This empire very quickly expanded to include Cambodia which had been a vassal state of the Kingdom of Siam. In 1875, the French introduced a Cambodian franc to Cambodia. Although these francs were minted in Belgium between 1875 and 1885, they always bore the date 1860. The French also began to introduce a subsidiary coinage in 'cents' into Cochinchina in the late 1870s. These cents were actually subsidiary coinage of the Spanish dollar unit, also known as Philippine peso or Mexican peso in the Spanish colonial empire, as opposed to being subsidiary coinage of the French franc.
In 1884, the French empire in Indo-China further expanded to incorporate Annam and Tonkin. The following year, in 1885, the French introduced a new silver piastre de commerce and associated subsidiary coinage throughout the entire Indo-Chinese colonies in order to increase monetary stability.The piastre was initially equivalent to the Spanish silver dollar or Philippine peso or Mexican peso. The piastre was therefore a direct lineal descendant of the Spanish pieces of eight that emanated from the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies after being brought to the Orient from Mexico and Peru on the Manila Galleons in the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade of the Spanish colonial empire.[5] It was initially on a silver standard of 1 piastre = 24.4935 grams pure silver. This was reduced to 24.3 grams in 1895.
During the first 11 years of their colonial rule, the French had minted millions of silver coins. However, because these French silver piastres were heavier than the Spanish or Philippine or Mexican reals, that already circulated in French Indochina at the time, the French made piastres were often hoarded by the local populace, especially by the highland tribes (Gresham's law). On July 8, 1895 and later again on April 14, 1898 it was decreed that new silver French Indochinese piastre coins would be minted with a lower weight, which allowed them to stay in general circulation. In 1895 the weight of the silver 1 piastre coin was reduced to 27 grams; the 50 cents to 13.5 grams;the 20 cents to 5.4 grams;[5] and the 10 cents to 2.7 grams.
In the year 1897 the weight of the copper-alloy 1 cent was also reduced to 7.0 and 7.5 grams in 1897 and was holed. These weights and denominations of the French Indochinese piastre would continue for some time until during and after World War I when the global value of silver had become very high.
The governor of French Indochina issued a decree on 1 January 1906 that the Spanish colonial real or Philippine or Mexican real were no longer legal tender in the colony. Despite this decree, a number Spanish or Philippine or Mexican silver coins that had been cut into halves, fourths and eighths would remain in circulation. Chopmarked piastres were also officially banned from circulation, while the native Vietnamese cash coins were still considered legal tender.
/ sakupljac01
sakupljac.crea...