2000 Kip Year of the Rat

The Lao PDR has issued lunar series coinage with some regularity since the 1990s, typically targeting the collector export market rather than domestic circulation — virtually none of these pieces ever passed through Lao hands as currency. The 2020 Year of the Rat holds mild calendrical significance as the first year of a new 60-year sexagenary cycle, a conjunction of the rat sign with the yang metal element that recurs only once every six decades.