Hi Nguyen Thong Bao / Blank. 19mm, 2.17 grams. Cast ca.1500s. Toda 26 

Rare. Today attributed to the rebel Nguyen (1381-1382) based on the inscription, as a rebel in 1381 assumed the title of a King and a name Hi Nguyen.

At various times many rebel leaders proclaimed themselves as Lords, Kings, and Emperors, and had produced their own coinage with their reign names and titles on them, but as their rebellions would prove unsuccessful or brief, their reigns and titles would go unrecorded in Vietnamese history, so the coins produced by their rebellions cannot easily be classified. The Nguyễn lords that ruled over Southern Vietnam had also produced their own coinage at various times as they were the de facto kings of the South, but as their rule wasn't official, it is currently unknown what coins can be attributed to which Nguyễn lord. Though since Edouard Toda has made his list in 1882 several of the coins that he had described as "originating from the Quảng Nam province" have been ascribed to the Nguyễn lords that the numismatists of his time couldn't identify. 

SKU  x12791-w56253