10 Ðồng

The National Treasury of Vietnam issued this note during the First Indochina War, when the Việt Minh government was fighting French forces while simultaneously trying to build a functioning monetary system in territory it controlled. Paper supply, printing infrastructure, and distribution were all improvised under wartime conditions — the notes circulated alongside French-issued piastres in contested regions, creating persistent uncertainty about which currency held real value.

Pick 23 is among the scarcer issues of this period. Survival rates are low partly due to the physical fragility of wartime paper stock, and partly because the areas where these notes circulated changed hands repeatedly.