5 Cents

Issued under Vichy-aligned colonial administration after Japanese forces had effectively severed Indochina from metropolitan France, this tiny-denomination note was a direct response to the near-total disappearance of coin from circulation — hoarding and metal requisitions had stripped the colony of its small change. The Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient in Hanoi stepped in where the Paris-based security printers no longer could, producing an emergency fractional currency under conditions of occupation without formally acknowledging the occupation.

Phạm Ngọc Khuê's involvement makes this one of the rare colonial-era Indochinese notes with a locally credited Vietnamese designer — an unusual circumstance worth noting in any serious collection.