500 Kip Marco Polo

Marco Polo passed through the upper Mekong regions in the 1280s during his service to Kublai Khan, and his accounts of mainland Southeast Asia — however embellished — remain among the earliest Western descriptions of the peoples and trade routes that would later fall within modern Laotian territory. Laos has issued collectible silver kip pieces with some regularity since the 1990s, typically targeting the European numismatic market rather than domestic circulation.

KM# 195 is a bullion-adjacent commemorative with no meaningful circulation history.