100 Riels Khmer Rouge

Pick R5 belongs to the parallel currency system maintained by the Khmer Rouge in territories they controlled following their 1979 military collapse and retreat to the Thai border regions. The notes were never intended for broad economic exchange — they functioned primarily as a political instrument, asserting administrative legitimacy over jungle-held territory while the internationally recognized government operated its own riel in Phnom Penh.

The series is sometimes misdated by collectors who conflate the print year with the period of actual Khmer Rouge governance. By 1993, the movement was a diminished insurgency, not a functioning state. Surviving examples circulated within a narrow geography and a shrinking population.