Lot 3230

VIETNAM, one sapèque copper 1870, There exists a sapèque of copper with a center square hole, carrying the inscription T Ðc Thông Bo and the reverse ECHANTILLON DE D. UHLHORN 1870 , 23.8 mm, 30 Grams. We do not know who cast these coins. There was a monetary press company Uhlhorn that was probably at Grevenbroich. In 1817, the German engineer Dietrich Uhlhom developed a mechanical press to strike the currencies for the Berlin and Düsseldorf mints, Royal Mint of London and the Mint of Paris before Thonnelier brought improvements to another machine. (Schloesser 224-225; Cooper 126-8). At the death of Dietrich in 1837 his son Heinrich took management of the firm that keeps the name of its founder: D. Uhlhorn. The DNTL is silent on a contact between them and the Vietnamese government. We however found a passage dating to January 1871, which could perhaps have been related with our test coin. There was an affair in which Nguy?n Ð?c H?u wanted to manufacture coins and sent a request to the authorities but before the court could clarify his request Nguy?n Ð?c H?u took the liberty to carry out tests of manufacture (this individual was formerly a messenger of ninth degree which was implicated in an affaire of a private purchase of a steamship for trade with foreigners). His examination by the court left him destitute. The installation of machines to manufacture coins, consequently, was not authorized (DNTL XLIII, 37). This passage presents an interesting development since it was a little before or probably during the year 1870 that this incident occurred. This is a subordinate civil servant interested closely in Western technology because his first offence was to be implicated in a private purchase of a steamer. In China at the same time there was the introduction of the monetary presses. (Zhang JB 7; Peng XW 771). The refusal of the authorities to look at this application of European technology, contrary to what occurred in China, corresponds completely to their bureaucratic viewpoints. The coin was brought into auction by someone whose great grandparents lived in Grevenbroich, extremely rare coin, unc condition