Vietnamese numismatic charms (Vietnamese: Bùa Việt Nam; chữ Hán: 越南符銭; chữ Nôm: 符越南), also known as Vietnamese amulets, Vietnamese talismans, or simply Vietnamese charms, refer to a family of cash coin-like and other numismatic inspired types of charms that like the Japanese and Korean variants are derived from Chinese numismatic charms (also referred to as Yansheng coins or huāqián), but have evolved around the customs of the Vietnamese culture although most of these charms resemble Vietnamese cash coins and the amulet coins of China. These "coins" were used at temples, as tokens within the imperial palace, and as everyday charms with supposed magical power such as having the ability to curse evil spirits and bogies. Some of these charms contained the inscriptions of real circulating cash coins but with added imagery.
Inscriptions on Vietnamese numismatic charms can be written in Chữ Hán, Taoist "magic" writing, Devanagari, pseudo-Devanagari, Chữ Nôm, and Latin scripts. Common inscriptions include Trường Mạng Phú Quý (長命富貴), Chính Đức Thông Bảo (正德通寶), and Châu Nguyên Thông Bảo (周元通寶).
Types of Vietnamese charms
Buddhist charms
Like with Chinese numismatic Buddhist charms there are Vietnamese numismatic Buddhist charms that contain Sanskrit inscriptions, however some of these Buddhist amulets from Vietnam contain only Sanskrit syllables associated with certain sounds but without meaning, these meaningless inscriptions were presumably borrowed from Chinese monks who used them as religious iconography.
Vietnamese amulets with pseudo-Sanskrit inscriptions
There are Vietnamese amulets that contain the Buddhist prayer "Om mani padme hum" (ॐ मणिपद्मे हूँ), or Án ma ni bát mê hồng (唵嘛呢叭咪吽), written in Devanagari script. This is chanting phrase used by Tibetan monks and has been adapted by other Buddhists in East Asia. In Buddhist schools of meditation the single syllable "Om" (ॐ) in this prayer is used as a focal point to help quiet the mind. These six syllables are said to purify the six realms. Many of these amulets have their inscriptions written in Devanagari is because many of the oldest Buddhist texts were written in Sanskrit later and Pali and many Chinese Buddhist monks studied Sanskrit to better understand these texts. Furthermore, Buddhist monks in Vietnam study Chinese languages to help understand these same texts. Thus there is a fusion of knowledge of both the Sanskrit and the Chinese language which influenced these amulets to both contain a form of pseudo-Devanagari and Chinese script.
Open-work charms
During the 19th century, a two-sided open-work amulet with a two opposing dragons design within a circular frame. These open-work charms contain a number of Buddhist symbols and religious iconography such as the circular frame symbolising Wheel of Dharma (or Wheel of the Law), which encompasses all of the tenets of Buddhism. Another Buddhist symbol is an umbrella or canopy located on the top, as the umbrella in Buddhist symbolism is a sign of protection as it "shades all medicinal herbs", while the shade of the canopy is said to "protects all living beings".
The design of two dragons are a part of Chinese folk religion, but like in contemporary Chinese and Vietnamese life, indigenous mythology mixed with Buddhism as can be demonstrated in several Buddhist charms which incorporate designs from other religions.
Vạn Thọ Thông Bảo
During the 60th birthday of Revival Lê dynasty Emperor Lê Hiển Tông in 1774 a special Vạn Thọ Thông Bảo (萬夀通寶) amulet was cast, these charms were often used to commemorate the birthday of an emperor as had happened in the Qing dynasty with the 60th birthdays of Chinese emperors. The reason these charms are cast on this particular event is because 60 years symbolises a complete cycle of the 10 heavenly stems and the 12 earthly branches.
The Book of Changes and Bagua charms (Eight Trigram charms)
Vietnamese Book of Changes and Bagua charms usually contain inscriptions displaying the Eight Trigrams (八卦, Bát Quái), these are the following Chinese characters: 乾, (☰, Càn) 坎, (☵, Khảm), 艮 (☶, Cấn), 震 (☳, Chấn), 巽 (☴, Tốn), 離 (☲, Ly), 坤 (☷, Khôn), and 兑 (☱, Đoài).
In the case of these coins, "charm" in this context is a catchall term for coin-shaped items which were not official (or counterfeit) money. However, these numismatic objects were not all necessarily considered "magical" or "lucky", as some of these Chinese numismatic charms can be used as "mnemonic coins".
These amulets may further have inscriptions like Trường Sinh Bảo Mạng (長生保命) which translates to "immortality" and "protect life". Such inscriptions would indicate that they were used as "protective" charms.