Catalog
5 Kip
| Issuer | Banque Nationale du Laos |
|---|---|
| Year | 1957-1962 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Yellow-brown note with French-language text and a central vignette of a man, woman, and child carrying sticks aboard an ox cart, rendered in an engraved illustrative style. Denomination numerals and border ornaments complete the composition. |
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| Variants | P#2a - with planchettes P#2b - without planchettes |
| Comments |
The Banque Nationale du Laos was established in 1955 following the 1954 Geneva Accords, which ended French Indochinese administration and left the new Royal Lao Government needing a functioning central bank almost immediately. This first series of kip notes, of which the 5 Kip is part, replaced the Indochinese piastre at par — a straightforward conversion that nonetheless carried enormous political weight for a country that had never previously issued its own currency.
Security Banknote Company of Philadelphia printed relatively few sovereign series; their contract work tends to appear in smaller newly independent states during the 1950s. The question mark against their print date in most references reflects genuine uncertainty — no production records have been reliably published for this contract.