2000 Riels 60th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations Between China and Cambodia

Commemorative issues from the National Bank of Cambodia are rare enough that this one warrants attention on those grounds alone. The 2000 Riels denomination had no prior existence as a circulating value — it was created specifically for this series, which means the note never functioned as currency in any practical sense and was sold directly to collectors and gift recipients rather than distributed through banking channels.

China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation handling the job is unsurprising given the diplomatic subject matter. Beijing has increasingly used commemorative printing contracts as a soft instrument of bilateral goodwill, and Cambodia's close alignment with China through the 2010s made this a natural arrangement.