1000 Riels

Pick 58 replaced the earlier 1000 Riel type (Pick 57) that had circulated since 1998. The redesign came as the National Bank of Cambodia was making incremental upgrades to its lower and mid-range denominations ahead of the broader security improvements applied to the 2007 and later series. Nothing dramatic drove the change — no crisis, no redenomination — just routine anti-counterfeiting progression in a country where the US dollar continues to handle the bulk of real commercial transactions, leaving Riel notes functioning largely as small change.

The security thread on this issue is a basic metallic type, notably modest by the standards of what neighboring central banks were specifying at the same period.