File:Toda No. 213 嘉隆通寶.png

English: The 阮 Nguyen Dynasty. From 1776 to the present time.

King 嘉隆 GIA-LONG was the nephew of King DUE-TONG, THE last sovereign of Cochinchina, and being gifted with an active mind and with great powers of organization, he determined to reconquer the territory which had been taken possession of by the Tay-son rebels. His lack was at first a very changeable one, for at one time he reigned in the South of Cochinchina with absolute power, and at another he found himself alone, persecuted, without an army, and forced to take refuge in Siam. At last success favoured him. With the help of the French, secured through the direct intervention of the Bishop of Adran, and assisted by the Siamese and Cambodian armies, he not only re-occupied the former territory of the Quang-nam Principality belonging to his family, but also took possession of the whole of Tunquin. Out of these conquests he formed the kingdom of Annam, and in 1801 proclaimed himself king, thus founding the NGUYEN Dynasty, which is still in power at the present day. Since then four kings have ascended the throne. The history of their reign contains but little worthy of note; moreover, it is' still of too recent a date to be dealt with impartially. These four kings are principally remarkable for their hatred towards foreigners and for their persecution of the Christians. It is only through the pressure of European armies that they have consented to open several ports to foreign trade, and at this very moment the country seems to be passing through a crisis, menaced as it is by the intervention of the French in Tunquin, who may possibly annex it in the same way as they annexed Lower Cochinchina twenty-five years ago.

No. 213. (Barker: 99.1-99.4) Obverse: 嘉隆通寶 Gia-long-thong-bao.

Reverse: plain. Three kinds of cash, made of copper, lead, or zinc.