[4] In 1932 it was reported by L'Éveil économique de l'Indochine ("The Economic Awakening of Indochina") that cash coins were increasingly becoming scarce in Annam and Tonkin, the L'Éveil économique de l'Indochine advised the government of the Nguyễn dynasty to start producing zinc Bảo Đại Thông Bảo cash coins to counter the scarcity of low denomination currencies, at this time zinc cash coins were still circulating in Annam while very few of them were left in Tonkin.

[5] During this period people were often unwilling to spend money because of the monetary scarcity of the time, economic policy advisors predicted that producing more cash coins would lower the cost of living for the population of the Nguyễn dynasty.

[6] On 29 September 1939 the Hanoian newspaper l'Effort Indochinois reported that the governments of French Indochina and the Nguyễn dynasty pursued a policy called an muoi (the introduction of large denomination debased cash coins which only had a slightly higher intrinsic value to drive out lower value cash coins), which sought to stabilise the exchange rate between cash coins and the piastre at 360:1.

[7] On Decree Number 55 dated 02-07-Bảo Đại 16 (24 August 1941) the Bảo Đại Emperor issued an ordonnance which states that within the entire territory of Trung Kỳ (Annam) the exchange rate between copper-alloy cash coins and the piastre was fixed at a rate of 4 strings of cash coins for 1 French Indochinese piastre, replacing the earlier Decree Number 1 of 21 February 1934 which fixed it at 6 strings of 50 cash coins.

[13] According to J. de Monty in Volonté (4 August 1933) Mercier had the enormous advantage of allowing an excellent execution of the production process with the minimum expenditure on material and handling.

[10] It was all the more important to seek to bring together all of these conditions, since in any case the new piece reaches its face value almost by the sole price of the material from which it is made, the brass.

[10] This tool operates automatically on a strip of brass 85 mm wide, in a single stroke of the pendulum: five strikes, five square openings, one spacing and five cutouts giving five finished pieces.

[10] Meaning that under the supervision of Mercier the production cost of these cash coins broke even with their nominal value (1⁄600 piastre).

[13] The production of these machine-struck cash coins started in 1933 and ended in 1934 and they all entered general circulation on 30 April 1935.