Vietnamese numismatic charm

[2][3] 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.

[7] 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.

[8] In Buddhist schools of meditation the single syllable "Om" (ॐ) in this prayer is used as a focal point to help quiet the mind.

[10][11] Vietnamese Book of Changes and Bagua charms usually contain inscriptions displaying the Eight Trigrams (八卦, Bát Quái), these are the following Chinese characters:[12] 乾, (☰, Càn) 坎, (☵, Khảm), 艮 (☶, Cấn), 震 (☳, Chấn), 巽 (☴, Tốn), 離 (☲, Ly), 坤 (☷, Khôn), and 兑 (☱, Đoài).

[15] Under the Nguyễn dynasty era Emperor Minh Mạng large (often 48 millimeters in diameter) presentation coins with the inscription Minh Mạng Thông Bảo (明命通寶) were made that featured inscriptions from the Huainanzi on their reverse, it is believed that this work was chosen because it states that a monarch or ruler should embrace both Confucianism and Taoism and attain sagehood.

[18] During the Vietnam War era Vietnamese numismatic charms with cash coin inscriptions were produced in large numbers as souvenirs for foreigners interested in antiques.

Some Vietnam war era replicas may include Hàm Nghi Thông Bảo (咸宜通寶) cash coins, which were produced under Emperor Hàm Nghi in the year 1885, without the reverse inscription "Lục Văn" (六文), or large (1 mạch) Duy Tân Thông Bảo (維新通寶) cash coins with the reverse inscription Trung Quốc Ái Dân (忠國愛民).

[27] Some marriage amulets have the obverse inscription Trường Mạng Phú Quý (長命富貴) written in seal script, which translates into English to "Long life, riches, and honour".

[32] Surrounding the couples having sex are the Chinese characters representing the spring (春), wind (風), peaches (桃), and plums (李), which is a reference to the first four characters of a line from the Chang hen ge poem which translates into English as "Gone were the breezy spring days when the peach and plum trees were in bloom" in reference to the death of Yang Guifei.

[32] The five poisons (五毒, Ngũ Độc), or the five noxious creatures, are an ancient Chinese concept that includes a snake, a centipede, a scorpion, a lizard, and a toad.

[33] Some Five Poisons amulets contain the imperative command inscription Khu Tà Tîch Ác (驅邪辟惡) which could be translated as "Expel Demons and Wicked Sovereigns".

[34] The design of the bat shaped khánh also appears on a 1943 series 20 piastre banknote issued by the Banque de l'Indochine.

[36] The obverse inscription that appears on some of these amulets is "Thần Chúng Cho Ban" which translates to "May the Spirits Bestow Favours".