INDOCHINA - FRENCH STATE 1943-1944 - Lot 396

INDOCHINA - FRENCH STATE 1943-1944 Phù" character. R/. Legend in Laotian and Vietnamese ideograms. Lecompte 322 Silver half-taël also ½ bya or ½ liang (1943) Hanoi. (18.83 g) Rare. Very beautiful. Medal strike / ridged edge. Engraver René Mercier. Copy Collection du Dr J.-P. G. (april 1975) n° 345 These coins were manufactured with the authorization of the Douanes et Régies (Customs and Excise), which were part of the Ministry of Finance, which controlled and financed the opium monopoly in French Indochina. Production rose from 7.5 tons in 1940 to 60.6 tons in 1944. Opium was trafficked between Laos, northern Tonkin and Burma. According to François Thierry, these coins circulated in French Indochina between 1943 and 1944. François Thierry de Crussol is a numismatist and General Curator of the Department of Medals and Antiques at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, specializing in Far Eastern coins, particularly from China and Vietnam. He has written several articles on Uyghur khaganat coins. * Many years ago, the Bulletin de la Société Française de Numismatique (BSFN) published two articles on the engraver René Mercier: - one by Jean Belaubre (curator of the Musée de la Monnaie de Paris), entitled "Un technicien méconnu du monnayage René Mercier et la sapèque Bao Daï. 1933 " - and the other by François Thierry, entitled "L'origine des pièces aux caractères 富 (Phù)". In 2010, in a Bulletin de la SFN, François Joyaux published a comprehensive article "A propos du graveur René Mercier (1886-1974).