20 Riels Angkor Wath

Cambodia's 1989 coinage program was produced during one of the most turbulent phases of the country's postwar reconstruction, just as the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea began issuing collector coins to generate hard currency — a practice common among cash-starved socialist states throughout the Cold War's final decade. These pieces were struck for export and foreign collectors, not domestic circulation; the riel itself had only been reintroduced in 1980 after Pol Pot's regime had abolished currency entirely.