1000 Riels

Cambodia's 1000 Riel note of 1999 falls within a period when the National Bank was quietly rebuilding institutional credibility after decades of destruction — the Khmer Rouge had physically abolished the banking system in 1975, burning currency and demolishing the central bank building in Phnom Penh. The riel itself had to be reintroduced from scratch in 1980 after a five-year absence, an almost unprecedented monetary rupture in modern history.

Oberthur's Rennes facility handled much of Francophone and post-colonial printing work through this period. A watermark remains the sole dedicated security feature, modest for a late-1990s issue from a country where dollarization was already eroding domestic currency use in urban markets.