Catalog
500 Đồng
| Issuer | National Bank of Vietnam |
|---|---|
| Year | 1966 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of Trần Hưng Đạo (1231–1300), the celebrated Trần dynasty royal prince, statesman, and military commander renowned for his decisive victories over the Mongol Yuan forces of Kublai Khan, rendered in intaglio portrait style. The denomination numeral and bank title appear within guilloche underprint borders, with signature lines for the Controller General and the Director of the Department of Issuance positioned below the portrait. |
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| Reverse description | Intaglio vignette of a traditional Vietnamese junk under full sail navigating a rocky coastal bay, accompanied by a smaller rowing vessel in the foreground, set against dramatic limestone karst outcroppings characteristic of Ha Long Bay. The denomination numeral 500 appears at lower left and lower right within guilloche cartouches, with the bank title across the top and the statutory counterfeiting warning in small letterpress text along the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
By 1966, South Vietnam's currency was under severe inflationary pressure — the United States military buildup had flooded the local economy with dollars, driving prices sharply upward and pushing demand for higher denominations. The 500 Đồng was a direct response to that devaluation creep, issued as the piaster's purchasing power collapsed faster than the printing schedule could accommodate.
Thomas De La Rue handled production throughout the National Bank of Vietnam's higher-denomination series during this period. The watermark security on this note was modest relative to the counterfeiting threat the South Vietnamese government actually faced — North Vietnamese forgery operations were active and well-documented by the mid-1960s.