2 Kak 0.2 Riel

The People's Republic of Kampuchea was proclaimed in January 1979, days after Vietnamese forces ousted the Khmer Rouge. Re-introducing currency was among the first acts of the new government — the Khmer Rouge had abolished money entirely in 1975, evacuating cities and destroying the National Bank of Cambodia in a literal sense. These 1979 fractional notes represent the first return of paper currency to Cambodia after four years of enforced monetary abolition, a circumstance with almost no parallel in twentieth-century monetary history.

The 2 Kak denomination equals 0.2 Riel — a fractional unit that suggests planners anticipated real small-denomination transaction needs in a shattered economy starting from nothing.