Vietnamese Coin
Tu Duc Bao Sao 9 Mach

Years	Denomination Van	Reverse	Weight		1 Van equivalent, in g	Ref.
			g	phan (0.3775 g)
1861	10 (1 quan)	Chuan Thap Van	5.66	15.00	0.5663	[1, 2]
1870		Chuan Van Nhat Thap	5.66?	15.00?	0.5663?	[1, 2]
1861-1870	20	Chuan Van Nhi Thap	11.33	30.00	0.5663	[1, 2]
1861-1870	30	Chuan Van Tam Thap				[1]
1861	50	Chuan Van Ngu Thap	23.40	61.99	0.4680	[1]
1870	40	Chuan Van Tu Thap	12.20	32.32	0.3050	[1]
1870	50	Chuan Van Ngu Thap	12.75	33.77	0.2550	[7]
1870	60	Chuan Van Luc Thap	12.40	32.85	0.2067	[1]
1870	120 (2 mach)	Chuan Dang Nhi Mach	20.52	54.36	0.1710	[1]
1870	180 (3 mach)	Chuan Dang Tam Mach				[6]
1870	480 (8 mach)	Chuan Dang Bat Mach				[6]
	540 (9 mach)	Chuan Dang Cuu Mach	28.03	74.25	0.0520

W. Op den Velde, "Cash coin index. The Cash Coins of Vietnam", Amsterdam 1996:

      Some questions:

1. Francois Thierry writes: "In 1861 a value 10 coin was issued in the first bao sao serie, and in 1872 a light thong bao value 6 coin was issued after the collapse of the second baosao serie ...".
   What are baosao series which Thierry mentioned?
   
2. Thuan Luc writes: "The Bao Sao with 10 Van weighted 15 phan = 5.6625 g ...".
   Which baosao 10 Van was mentioned by Luc? We see from the above table that there are two types issued in different years.
   
3. What is a weight of 30 Van coin?
   

      Some answers to the questions in your site about the 9 mach baosao coin:
      The two series of the baosao in van are precisely presented and dated (1861 and 1870) in my book Catalogue des Monnaies Vietnamiennes 1987 (pp. 29 and 30), all the weights of the two series are given. It is very strange that the author of the question do not read the whole of the text and cite only a part of my text. I have published recently a study about "Monnaies et circulation monetaire au Vietnam dans l'ere Tu Duc (1848-1883)", Revue Numismatique 1999, pp. 267-315, pl. XL-XLI., with many unpublished coins and details about the baosao in mach. It should be necessary that numismatists reads the new books and publications and not that they continue to read and cite the old and wrong Toda's, Ramsden's, Novak's, Lockhart's books, or Lacroix's album <text, planches; look for 'Desire Lacroix' in Recherche section of http://gallica.bnf.fr/ - V.B.>. I understand that it is more easy to read in English, but, sorry, the publications are in French or in Japanese....

      I thinks that you should given some of my publications in your Vietnamese Numismatic bibliography, because in the last ten years I have published many unknown coins and many Vietnamese text (for example, a Khai Thai nguyen bao value 10, some baosao value 1 quan, 8 mach, 2 mach, a one silver lang coin of Thanh Thai, a gold Nhi Nghi of Thanh Thai, a large one gold lang coin of Dong Khanh, etc).

      On the other hand, 2 mach are not 200 van but 120, because a mach is 60 zinc van and not 100 copper coins; the 9 mach value is 540 zinc van <I fixed this mistake in the above table - VB>.

      Answer to Mr. W. Op den Velde : it exists only one baosao of 2 mach, that of the Paris Mint Museum that I publish in Monnaies d'Extreme Orient, vol. II Vietnam-Japon, under the number V209. The coin N478 in the Chinese books Yuenan lishi huobi 1993 (Mind the wrong translation in Vietnamese in the cover: Lieh su dong tien Vietnam is wrong, the correct one is (without the accents) Lich suu dong tien Vietnam) is the same photograph stolen from my own publication withouth authorization in contravention of the copyright. The most of this book photographs for the Nguyen period are stolen from the Paris Mint Museum Catalogue.