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KM#7a represents a wartime composition shift — the original KM#7 had been struck in aluminum-bronze, but by 1971 the South Vietnamese government was operating under severe economic strain and U.S. dependency, and base metal substitutions were practical necessities rather than policy choices. Nickel clad steel was cheaper and easier to source through American-backed supply chains. The 1971 date places this squarely in the period following Vietnamization, when the Nixon administration was drawing down troops while Saigon struggled to maintain basic institutional functions, coinage among them.