Catalog
5 Riels
| Issuer | Banque Nationale du Cambodge |
|---|---|
| Year | 1961-1972 |
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| Currency | First riel (1953-1975) |
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| Obverse description | Intaglio-printed vignette of the Bayon temple tower with its iconic four-faced Avalokitesvara stone carvings at left, set within a lobed cartouche frame. The central field carries the denomination in Khmer script over a multicolour guilloche rosette underprint, flanked by two signature panels with Khmer titles above each. A fine guilloche border with corner numeral devices frames the entire design in rose-red. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Intaglio vignette of the Royal Palace complex in Phnom Penh at right, rendered with fine line engraving showing the Khmer-style tiered rooflines and surrounding tropical gardens. A large plain guilloche oval occupies the left half of the note, with the denomination numeral 5 in the lower left corner and the French legend CINQ RIELS above the central field. The issuer's name in French runs along the lower border. |
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| Comments |
Bradbury Wilkinson produced this note for the Banque Nationale du Cambodge during a period when Cambodia was still navigating the tight diplomatic balancing act of Sihanouk's neutralism — accepting aid from both American and Communist-bloc sources while keeping the riel nominally stable. The 5-riel denomination sat at the low end of everyday transactions, which means surviving examples in clean condition are genuinely uncommon; heavy use and Cambodia's tropical climate combined to destroy most of the print run before the political collapse of the early 1970s.
Bradbury Wilkinson's New Malden facility handled a significant portion of Southeast Asian currency work in this period, making the Cambodian series one of several concurrent commissions rather than a prestige contract.