SU: COIN OF VIETNAM
10 su, 1953: State of Vietnam (South Vietnam)
VIỆT-NAM: Vietnam.
10 SU (the following fact about South Vietnamese exchange coins seems very strange and incomprehensible to me: 10 and 20 su in 1953, 50 xu in 1953, 50 su in 1960 and 50 xu in 1963 were issued; that is, the denomination was indicated in su or xu formats without any logic or regularities).
Rice stalks (Asian rice or Oryza sativa — "oryza" is a classical Latin word for "rice" while "sativa" means "cultivated").
QUỐC-GIA VIỆT-NAM: State of Vietnam.
Three women represent 3 regions: South Vietnam, Middle Vietnam, North Vietnam.
Around the date — cornucopia and wing: mint mark and mark of engraver (Lucien Georges Bazor).
Paris Mint (Monnaie de Paris, France).
Mintage: 20.000.000.
The State of Vietnam (1949-1955) was a governmental entity that existed first as a member of the French Union and later as a country. The state claimed authority over all of Vietnam during the First Indochina War, although large parts of its territory were controlled by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). In 1955 was proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) whose army, with American assistance, had a war with North Vietnam.
- Aluminium: 23 mm - 1.3 g
- Reference price: 2.5$
COIN SU — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- SOUTH VIETNAM — State of Vietnam (1953) + Republic of Vietnam (1960): su = 1/100 dong
About the name of the coin su: interestingly, the su coin was used in South Vietnam during the 1950s in parallel with the equivalent xu coin. Why in the specified period 1/100 dong had the name of this spelling (su), and not the more traditional variant (xu) is unknown.
However, it is safe to say that the appearance of the coin name su (apparently, like xu) is connected with the French page of Vietnamese history. The coin was named after the French coin sol (later sou), which in turn got its name from the ancient Roman solidus (a famous ancient gold coin).
