Vietnamese numismatic charm

A Vietnamese amulet that resembles a cash coin.

Vietnamese numismatic charms (Vietnamese: Bùa Việt Nam; chữ Hán: 越南符銭; chữ Nôm: 符越南),[1] also known as Vietnamese amulets, Vietnamese talismans, or simply Vietnamese charms, refer to a family of cash coin-like and other numismatic inspired types of charms that like the Japanese and Korean variants are derived from Chinese numismatic charms (also referred to as Yansheng coins or huāqián), but have evolved around the customs of the Vietnamese culture although most of these charms resemble Vietnamese cash coins and the amulet coins of China.[2][3] These "coins" were used at temples, as tokens within the imperial palace, and as everyday charms with supposed magical power such as having the ability to curse evil spirits and bogies.[4] Some of these charms contained the inscriptions of real circulating cash coins but with added imagery.[5]

Inscriptions on Vietnamese numismatic charms can be written in Chữ Hán, Taoist "magic" writing, Devanagari, pseudo-Devanagari, Chữ Nôm, and Latin scripts. Common inscriptions include Trường Mạng Phú Quý (長命富貴), Chính Đức Thông Bảo (正德通寶), and Châu Nguyên Thông Bảo (周元通寶).[6]

  1. ^ Greenbaum 2006, p. 1.
  2. ^ BLANCHARD Raphaël et BUI Van Quy, "Sur une collection d'amulettes chinoises", Revue d'Anthropologie, juillet-août 1918, pp. 131–172. (in French)
  3. ^ Emmanuel Poisson (10 December 2016). "The Vietnamese Charms in the Department of Coins and Medals of the French National Library". Springer Singapore. Archived from the original on 12 August 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023. Although there are charms made of wood, paper, cloth, etc., this paper will deal with coin-shaped charms , ya sheng qian 厭勝錢 coins for submission of and triumph over demons. Traditionally, Chinese researchers present them in the final chapters of numismatic books or in their supplements. They are essentially a subject of numismatic study. It means researchers give weight, size, metal features and a brief description, without analysis of images or symbols.
  4. ^ "Monnaies amulettisées (Charm coins)". François Thierry de Crussol (TransAsiart) (in French). 14 September 2015. Archived from the original on 6 July 2018. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  5. ^ "Vietnamese large Minh-mang thong bao charm". Vladimir Belyaev and Sergey Shevtcov (Charm.ru – Chinese Coinage Website). 12 May 1998. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  6. ^ Greenbaum 2006.