17 January 2007 (Vietnam Net Bridge) – A report on the trade in antique coins found in the Hue river in Vietnam.
Antique coins found in Hue rivers
For the past several years, beside ceramic works, fishermen have found a large number of antique coins in rivers in Hue and sold them to antique money collectors.
Most of the coins are made of copper and zinc. There are sometimes gold and silver coins that were minted for award purposes rather than to be used on the market.
The coins show that people in Hue in particular and in the central region in general used many kinds of coins minted at different historical periods including “Gia Long Currency,†“Minh Mang Currency” and even the very rare “Ham Nghi†coins made during the Nguyen dynasty, and “Quang Trung Currency†and “Canh Thinh Currency” of Emperor Quang Trung’s period.
According to an expert on Hue’s history, Mr. Ho Tan Phan, the discovery of such a rich source of old coins reaffirms the conclusion of many research works that today’s Thua Thien – Hue used to be a big regional trading and foreign exchange centre.
Fascinating – I know very little about the ancient coins of Asia but I’ll look into it… the finding of so many coins in the river suggests to me there may be a major hoard somewhere in the area.