Khải Định Thông Bảo

{{Infobox coin

| Denomination = Khải Định Thông Bảo
(啓定通寳)

| Country = 20px Nguyễn dynasty
({{flag|French Indochina}})

| Value = 6 văn

| Unit = ({{frac|200}} French Indochinese piastre){{Sfn|Daniel|2018|p=79}}

| Mass_g = first series = 2.28 g
second series = 2.10

| Diameter_mm = 22

| Diameter_inch =

| Diameter_special =

| Thickness_mm = 1

| Thickness_inch =

| Thickness_special =

| Composition = Brass

| Years of Minting = {{Start date|1921}}–{{End date|1933}}

| Mintage = 27,629,000 (first series)
200,000,000 (second series)

| Circulation =

| Catalog Number =

| Obverse = File:Khải Định Thông Bảo (啓定通寶) - Art-Hanoi 03.jpg

| Obverse Design = 啓定通寳 (Khải Định Thông Bảo)

| Obverse Designer =

| Obverse Design Date =

| Obverse Discontinued =

| Reverse = File:Khải Định Thông Bảo (啓定通寶) - Art-Hanoi 04.jpg

| Reverse Design = BlankFrench Southeast Asia Coins & Currency by Howard A. Daniel III (page 97).[http://art-hanoi.com/collection/annam/khaidinh.html 啟定 Khải Định 1916-1925 cash coins]. By Sema (Art-Hanoi) Cash coins of Bao Dai were the last cash-style coins produced in the world. Retrieved: 05 March 2018

| Reverse Designer =

| Reverse Design Date =

| Reverse Discontinued =

}}

The Khải Định Thông Bảo (chữ Hán: 啓定通寳;{{Efn|Commonly written as "啓定通寶" in modern sources.}} French: Sapèque Khaï-Dinh) was a French Indochinese sapèque coin produced from 1921 until 1933, the design of the coin was round with a square hole that was used for stringing them together. Khải Định became Emperor of Annam in 1916 the funding for the production of new cash coins was reduced by the Hanoi Mint which lead to the demand of the Vietnamese market for low value denominations to not be met, furthermore, after Hanoi reduced funding for the Thanh Hóa Mint, which until that time was producing enough low denomination cast cash coins to meet the market's demands, which caused most, but not all, of the production of cash coins at the mint to cease in 1920.{{Sfn|Daniel|2018|p=79}} In response a new committee was formed in Hanoi which ordered the creation of machine-struck Khải Định Thông Bảo cash coins, these are the first machine-struck four character Thông Bảo (通寳) coins in Vietnam with the reigning emperor's name as the French government had prior tried to introduce a Cochinchinese 2 sapèque coin that continued under French Indochina that weighed 2.05 grams and had a nominal value of {{frac|500}} piastre, later the colonial government of the French Protectorate of Tonkin had unsuccessfully tried to introduce a zinc milled sapèque produced by the Paris Mint with a nominal value of {{frac|600}} piastre from 1905 until 1906. Unlike the earlier attempts at producing machine-struck cash coins by the colonial French authorities the Khải Định Thông Bảo proved to be much more successful as the first series had a production of 27,629,000 coins while the second series greatly exceeded this with around 200,000,000 coins produced in Huế, Haiphong, and Hanoi.Đỗ Văn Ninh (1992), Tiền cổ Việt Nam, Nhà xuất bản Khoa học xã hội (in Vietnamese)Lục Đức Thuận, Võ Quốc Ky (2009), Tiền cổ Việt Nam, Nhà xuất bản Giáo dục (in Vietnamese) The Khải Định Thông Bảo continued to be produced long after the death of Emperor Khải Định under his successor Bảo Đại until it was phased out by the Bảo Đại Thông Bảo (保大通寳) in 1933.{{Cite web|url= https://issuu.com/jean388/docs/the_second_issue_of_jean/81|title=Sapeque and Sapeque-Like Coins in Cochinchina and Indochina (交趾支那和印度支那穿孔錢幣)|date=20 April 2016|access-date=4 March 2018|work=Howard A. Daniel III (The Journal of East Asian Numismatics – Second issue)|language=en}}Dr. R. Allan Barker. (2004) The historical Cash Coins of Viet Nam. {{ISBN|981-05-2300-9}}

In the French protectorate of Annam cash coins were still being used for virtually all transactions as late as 1921, in order to combat deflation the Khải Định Thông Bảo was introduced and mass-produced.{{cite web|url= https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6123695g.r=Sap%C3%A8ques?rk=42918;4#visuAccordion|title= Bulletin administratif de l'Annam - N⁰ 23.|date=1 December 1921|access-date=20 January 2022|author= The government of the French protectorate of Annam|publisher= The government-general of French Indochina|language=fr}} The new machine-struck were produced in the French protectorate of Tonkin to be placed into the treasury of the government of the Nguyễn dynasty until an opportune moment would present itself to introduce them into general circulation to combat the negative effects of hoarding, which resulted in the gradual disappearance of older cash coins from circulation causing the low denomination copper-alloy coins to become scarce. The new Khải Định Thông Bảo cash coins were introduced with a hope to reduce the cost of living caused by delfation.

The French government in Annam announced in their official bulletin that they would exchange 1 Khải Định Thông Bảo cash coin for 6 zinc cash coins in order to promote their circulation. According to an ordonnance entitled Fixing the exchange of the new cash coins bearing the reign era of Khải Định (Fixant la valeur d'échange de la nouvelle sapèque portant la chiffre de Règne Khai-Dinh) signed on 01-09-Khải Định 5 (12 October 1920) by five of the six ministers of the Nguyễn dynasty, the Khải Định Emperor, and the Governor-General of French Indochina Maurice Long, the people of Đại Nam are "warned that cash coins are for their daily life and serve as an article of their very first necessity" and that "there is no worse malaise than the scarcity of cash coins", while emphasising that the production costs of the currency is higher than their nominal and market value and that their continued production constitutes a heavy burden both for the French Indochinese and Nguyễn dynasty governments, but that the government prefers to bear this burden than let the people suffer from the negative consequences of their scarcity.Government-General of French Indochina and the imperial government of the Nguyễn dynasty - [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k938230d/f926.item.r=sap%C3%A8que Ordonnance Royalle - Fixant la valeur d'échange de la nouvelle sapèque portant la chiffre de Règne Khai-Dinh]. Published: 01-09-Khải Định 5 (12 October 1920). Retrieved: 25 April 2023. (in French).

Because the machine-struck Khải Định Thông Bảo cash coins were heavier than the earlier milled 2 sapèques produced by the Paris Mint, they were likely valued at {{Frac|200}} piastre.{{Sfn|Daniel|2018|p=79}} A number of the machine-struck cash coins were produced by Poinsard & Veyret Comptoirs D'Extrême-Orient in Hải Phòng, French Tonkin.{{Sfn|Daniel|2018|p=79}} While the Hanoi-made coins were struck by the Banque de l'Indochine.Lục Đức Thuận, Võ Quốc Ky (2009), Tiền cổ Việt Nam, Nhà xuất bản Giáo dục. Pages 93–94. (in Vietnamese).

In Tonkin these coins were welcomed and circulated with small denomination coins of the French Indochinese piastre, while in Annam the people were more reluctant to adopt the new machine-struck coinage.{{cite web|url= https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k14163009/f1.item.r=Sap%C3%A8ques.zoom|title= Contre la thésaurisation des pièces divisionnaires.|date=29 September 1939|access-date=20 January 2022|author= Xuân TIÊU|publisher= l'Effort Indochinois (Journal Autonomiste Paraissant la Vendredi) - Hanoï, Tonkin, Nguyễn dynasty, French Indochina|language=fr}}