Bảo tàng lịch sử Quốc gia

Money is used for defining the value of objects. Although it appeared early or lately in each country, it is one thing that every countries in the world must have. There are dates, signs, portraits and some arts like dragons and waves on coins. Especially in Eastern, some letters, molded on coins, were affected by calligraphy art that makes ancient coins become a type of physical cultural heritage. It reflected many fields in social life and became an abundant historic document source along with exactly dates.

In Vietnam, using coins as an intermediary to buy things instead of exchanging objects without money appeared early. Some archaeological evidences have shown many Chinese coins that were used in Vietnam.

Molding or printing money, started to issue from the Dinh dynasty (in the 10^th century), is one way to confirm the independence of the Vietnamese people in general and the development of the country in particular. Therefore, researches on money are very important that make people promote their knowledge of economy, politics and social history.

The publication “The Handbook of Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and French ancient coins” defined coins which have same dates but were different in origins. There are 400 types of Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and French coins. Each type had a profile that included 21 criteria along with photo plates and photos of 2 sides for exactly views. This is an useful tool for researching and defining ancient coins on the base of standard examples.

Readers concerning the publication can find in the Library of The Vietnam National Museum of History, No. 25 Tong Dan street, Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi – Vietnam.