Vietnam 5 Hao cameo 1946 - Museum Gallery

May 2024

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Rare issue that is not incuse and like KM shows no corrosion (hmm!). There is some disturbance in the field but I would tend to call this a cameo proof-like. With the rarity I would go so far as to call these presentation pieces, some have called them patterns and that's probably close to the truth. Known to have been struck in China. Nicely reeded all around.
Howard Daniel III believes the raised 5 Hao dated 1946 were minted in Shanghai (or another Chinese mint) by the Chinese Communists for Hanoi in the mid to late 1950s and they were used by the Vietnamese Communists as presentation coins (see below a 2nd version of the story); they retained the date 1946. Not all of them might have been shipped to VietNam. It is very possible the excess were found at the mint and are being disposed of into the numismatic marketplace, but that's wild speculation. That might mean all of the early North Vietnamese coins were struck in China. The following from Bob Reis's web site:
NORTH VIETNAM, 5 Hao, 1946, Reverse: relief “HAO,” aluminum, presentation issue struck by Shanghai mint in 1950s, KM2.2, the hairlines are from planchet polishing, not cleaning, BU. The story attached to this version of the coin is that they were struck for presentation to Vietnamese officials during a visit to China.
Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent from France in 1945. Nine years of war ensued, but finally the French left. There was supposed to be a plebiscite about the future but the south, which was run by a French puppet government, refused to participate. Another twenty years of war, involving the USA, until 1975, when unification was attained.