1 Đồng

The National Bank of Vietnam was established in 1951 under the State of Vietnam, and the coinage program that produced this piece was part of Saigon's effort to maintain an independent monetary system distinct from both the French piastre it replaced and the currency circulating in the North. By 1960, with American economic aid increasingly shaping South Vietnamese fiscal policy, the dong's stability was already under pressure from inflation tied to war expenditure. This particular issue saw relatively limited circulation life — wartime hoarding and eventual currency reforms meant many examples survived in better-than-expected condition.