1000 Đồng

The National Bank of Vietnam was established in 1951 as part of the State of Vietnam's effort to create a currency independent of the Indochinese piastre, which had been the monetary unit under French colonial administration. This note was among the earliest issues of that new institution, printed by Thomas De La Rue in London before any domestic printing infrastructure existed. The timing matters: the First Indochina War was still ongoing, and distribution of the new currency across the south was genuinely complicated by active military operations.

Pick 65 is notably scarce in circulated grades, likely because high-denomination notes in wartime economies tend to be hoarded rather than spent.