Reference
Note:
Hartill (GCC, p. 110, Figs 2.196-2.198) illustrates three examples of an unattributed Vietnamese Tường Phù Nguyên Bảo coin among his category: ‘Large Copper Resembling Song Dynasty Chinese Coins’. This variety has the 符without the arrow-head appearance of the vertical strokes shown in Hartill’s fig. 2.195 and in all the Barker figures 87.1 – 87.5. But the form of the 元 is tending towards a stylized grass script with the legs converging acutely at the top and a dot rather than a bar above. The inscription is probably copied from the Northern Song Xiang Fu yuan bao coin (Hartill CCC, p. 131, Figure 16.52), rather than from a Japanese Sho Fu Gen Ho Nagasaki Trade Coin (Hartill, EJC, p. 37). HCR 58958 appears to be of this type. However, with a diameter of 23.1mm, HCR 58959 is significantly smaller and cruder than HCR 58958 (q.v.), although still typical of the size of Vietnamese imitations of N. Song coins (Hartill, GCC, p. 99). It is possible that HCR 58959 is either a recast from a larger coin like HCR 58958, or a smaller copy.
