5 Cents Military Payment Certificate

Series 692, the last MPC series issued before the Vietnam-era certificates were phased out, was used exclusively by U.S. military personnel in authorized facilities — PXs, clubs, mess halls — to prevent greenbacks from leaking into local economies and fueling black markets. The system worked imperfectly: MPC trading among Vietnamese civilians was widespread and largely unstoppable despite periodic "C-Day" conversion events, where all outstanding certificates were invalidated overnight with minimal warning, wiping out anyone holding them illegally.

Series 692 ran from 1970 to 1973. The small denominations like this 5-cent note were the workhorses of the makeshift change economy inside the bases.