5 Riels Democratic Kampuchea

This note was issued by the Khmer Rouge government after their seizure of Phnom Penh in April 1975 — the same regime that famously abolished money altogether within months of taking power. The National Bank of Cambodia was literally blown up in 1975, an act that was as much symbolic as logistical. These notes were printed but never meaningfully circulated; the Khmer Rouge's agrarian utopia had no use for currency.

Surviving examples tend to be from unissued stocks rather than genuine circulation finds. The printing contractor has not been conclusively established in the literature.