20 Riels Old Sailing Craft

Cambodia's 1988 commemorative silver program was produced under the People's Republic of Kampuchea, the Vietnamese-installed government that had displaced the Khmer Rouge in 1979. The country remained under international sanctions and was largely excluded from global diplomatic recognition throughout this period, which makes the export-oriented commemorative coin program — clearly aimed at Western collectors rather than domestic circulation — a quietly revealing economic maneuver by an isolated state hungry for hard currency.