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Sapeque
| Issuer | Monnaie de Paris |
|---|---|
| Year | 1896 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Sapeque (0.002 ICFP) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Plain field surrounding a raised-rimmed central square perforation, with six bold Chinese characters arranged in the four cardinal positions around the hole. The legend reads '大法國之安南 當二' in the traditional cash-coin format: '大法國之安南' (Great France's Annam) distributed at the right and left, and '當二' (worth two) placed below the aperture. The characters are rendered in a brushwork-inspired style consistent with Vietnamese cash coin conventions adapted for French colonial use. |
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| Mintage | 1896 A |
| Additional information |
The sapeque was France's attempt to produce a coin that could displace the cash coins already entrenched in daily commerce across Cochinchina and Tonkin — perforated, low-denomination pieces that local populations had used for generations. The square-holed format was a deliberate concession to that habit. Monnaie de Paris struck these in multiple runs through the 1880s and 1890s, but adoption was never clean; Chinese cash and counterfeit sapeques circulated alongside the official issues throughout the colonial period.
The 1896 date places this piece late in the series, by which point the denomination's role in the broader Indochinese monetary system was already being reconsidered ahead of the piastre-based reforms that would follow in the early twentieth century.