French Indochina Piastre
1885 ・ silver ・ 19th century ・ French Indochina
France was the last to join this line. In 1885, the trade piastre was issued in French Indochina. The United States, Japan, Great Britain, and France—the world's major powers—each tailored their own foreign silver coins and successively introduced them into the seas of East Asia. Yet, for all these silver coins, there was only one rival to compare against: the 8 reales, struck for three hundred years without change in a distant land of continuous civil war—the Eagle Dollar. The silver coins that came later had no choice but to compete within the arena defined by its standard.