Printing "Uncle Ho's silver coins" in the Thanh - Nghe - Tinh rear

(Baonghean.vn) - Since the decree on issuing paper money nationwide (issued on January 31, 1946), the first banknote of Vietnam as an independent nation officially entered life, affectionately called by the people as "Uncle Ho's banknote".

There are many documents written about Uncle Ho banknotes printed in Hanoi, especially in the South from 1946 to 1953; but not many people know that there were also "Uncle Ho banknotes" produced in the safe areas of Thanh - Nghe - Tinh during this period. Through accessing documents at the Museum of Military Zone 4, we have systematized the birth of "Uncle Ho banknotes" printed in the Central region.

100 Dong banknote with portrait of Uncle Ho.



5 Dong financial banknote

Initially, the Central printing facility was secretly located at Ngo Tu Ha Printing House, Hang Be Street (now Huynh Thuc Khang Street), Hue City, then moved to Hien Si Village, Phong Thai Commune (now Phong Son Commune), Phong Dien District, Thua Thien Hue Province. After the Preliminary Agreement of March 6 and the Provisional Agreement of September 14, 1946, the French colonialists provoked in Hue, so the Central printing facility was instructed to secretly move to a safe area. With the help of the people and local authorities, the workers moved all the machinery and equipment to Ha Tinh, upstream of the Ngan Pho River to Van Giang Hamlet, Thinh Van Commune (now Son Thinh Commune), Huong Son to install machinery, in order to print in time to serve the resistance.

When the location of the printing factory was basically stable, the leadership of the Central Printing Agency asked for instructions from above to recruit more local workers and speed up production. To ensure the secrecy of the base area, the Provincial Party Committee, the Resistance Administrative Committee of Ha Tinh Province, the Inter-Zone Committee of Zone 4, and the leaders of the Ministry of Finance met to discuss the requirement to carefully select technical workers, especially those with clear family backgrounds, and to clearly identify their ideology as performing special tasks, and to be absolutely vigilant against French spies infiltrating the ATK area and sabotaging the revolutionary rear.

During the days of working and living in hardship among the vast forests and mountains of the west of Ha Tinh province, the new cadres and workers of the Central Printing Workshops, although still young, were mainly young rural youth and young urban intellectuals in the provinces of Zone 4 with a patriotic spirit, many of whom had participated in the self-defense fighting team, but did not have much experience in the industry, studying and working at the same time but still ensuring that the machines ran day and night without stopping, the production spirit was enthusiastic, bustling, competing in production, serving the resistance, determined not to delay the source of money for distribution.

The types of silver printed include 1 dong, 5 dong, 10 dong, 20 dong, 50 dong and 100 dong. At first, although it was not yet the unified currency of Vietnam, all types of silver printed exclusively in the Central region had a very beautiful image of Uncle Ho, which was enthusiastically received by people across the country and called "Uncle Ho Silver".

The 100 Dong note was printed and issued in 1949 and had great significance for the Vietnamese revolution.MaleDuring the time of preparing to move to a new stage, Uncle Ho banknotes printed in the Central region were quickly sent everywhere, meeting the urgent spending needs of the revolutionary government and the entire battlefield, creating a solid belief in the hearts of the people in the free zones as well as the areas temporarily occupied by the enemy.

On the battlefield of Binh - Tri - Thien, although the colonialists controlled and restrained trade and transactions, they used many tricks to strangle the Vietnamese currency, but could not stop the people from using "Uncle Ho's silver". Our people wholeheartedly followed the revolution, trusted the Government, and beloved Uncle Ho, so they hid and kept it secretly for secret circulation. The people called for efforts to protect Uncle Ho's silver, with absolute trust that even if the French invaders collected and destroyed all the banknotes, "Uncle Ho's silver, silver from the war zone, would be brought back". Among the people, there is still a simple, sincere, profound folk song imbued with the love of the people: "Some people love and some hate Indochina silver/ Some people give and some take away Uncle Ho silver/ Let's join hands to fight the enemy/ Even if you give it all away (burn it all)/ We will bring back the silver from the war zone.

At the end of the 1950 Border Campaign, the Central financial printing agency was reorganized to suit the situation. The direction and printing of banknotes was transferred to the Inter-Zone 4 currency distribution agency. A special printing workshop was established called the "Special Printing Group", directly directed by the Ministry of Public Security and the Zone 4 Party Committee, located in Son Tan commune, then moved to My Hoa (now Son Hoa, Huong Son, Ha Tinh)...

The Uncle Ho silver coins produced in the Thanh - Nghe - Tinh rear areas contributed greatly to the resistance war against French colonialism and achieved complete victory.

Sam Temple