Khai Dinh gold Medallic 9 Tien ND (1916-1925) AU Details (Holed) NGC, KM-X Unl., Fr-Unl., S&H-Unl. (cf. S&H-3.24 for similar type, but for Duy-Tan's reign), Thierry-Unl. 37mm. 33.29gm. By Pierre. A highly intriguing gold type of the penultimate Emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty, missing from the standard literature on this series, though in their original listing of this piece, MDC Monaco stated in December 2017 that it was intended to be published in the next isssue of the Revue de la Société Numismatique Asiatique by François Joyaux. To our knowledge, only a few types from Khai Dinh's short reign have emerged on auction in recent years, though a handful of medallic issues are recorded in the Standard Catalog of World Coins Unusual volume. In their work, The Traditional Awards of Annam, Sylvester and Hüsken produce a line drawing of a very similar piece--also pierced at 12 and 6 o'clock, though omitting the Pierre signature and with the name of Duy-Tan--suggesting that the piece belongs to a special class (Dai Hang) of decorations, also comprising the pieces under numbers 3.1.2.1, 3.2.2.2 and 3.13.3. In any case an item of the utmost rarity, sure to appeal to collectors of the Annamese series.

HID09801242017

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