5 Dollars Military Payment Certificate

Military Payment Certificates were issued to U.S. military personnel and authorized civilians stationed overseas specifically to prevent black-market dealings in local economies — soldiers could not legally exchange MPC for local currency at face value, and local nationals were barred from holding them. The system worked imperfectly. MPC conversions, known as "C-Day" events, were conducted without warning, requiring all personnel to exchange their holdings within hours. Anyone caught off-cycle — including black-market operators and local civilians who had accumulated MPC illegally — simply lost their money.

Series 692, which this note belongs to, ran from 1969 and was withdrawn in 1973 following the drawdown of U.S. forces in Vietnam. That conflict was the primary theater for this series.