5 Piastres Green

Banque de l'Indochine's wartime printing operation in Hanoi was a direct consequence of the Japanese occupation severing normal supply lines to metropolitan France. The Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient, already established as a commercial and government printer in the city, was pressed into currency production under conditions of severe material shortages — visible in the thinner, less consistent paper stock that characterizes notes from this period.

Phạm Ngọc Khuê's involvement as designer is notable: a Vietnamese artist working under French colonial authority, producing currency for a bank effectively operating under Japanese military oversight. The political layering behind a single note's production is rarely this compressed.