text: After the victory over the twelve self-appointed governors ruling chaotic Annam and the Later Ngo kings, Dinh Bo Linh proclaimed himself Emperor Dinh Tien Hoang, established his capital at Hoa Lu and renamed the country to the Dai Co Viet in the year of 968. He was the first Emperor casted Vietnamese coins Thai Binh Hung Bao in Vietnam history and opened an independent era from China for Vietnam.
  The round copper coin had 4 Chinese characters Dai Binh Hung Bao with a squared hole. In ancient time, the characters THAI (great) or DAI (big) had the similar meaning.
  The average diameter of such coins was about 23.87 mm and average weight was about 2.3 gram.
  On the reverse side of the coin there was a character DINH either above or below the hole. We could find some coins with the hook of character DINH toward the right side, instead of the normal left side. Also there were Thai Binh Hung Bao with a plain reverse. The author of the book Vietnamese Historical Currency published by Yunnan and GuangXi Numismatic Society in 1993 thought that the ones with plain reverse were cast by Emperor Le Dai Hanh (980-1005) in the first year of the Le dynasty.