Catalog
5000 Kip - Savang Vatthana Coronation
| Issuer | Laos |
|---|---|
| Year | 1971 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 40 g |
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| Obverse description | Bare-headed right-facing effigy of King Savang Vatthana, with finely detailed facial features and wearing a decorated military collar visible at the truncation. The portrait is rendered in high relief with a realistic, medallic artistic style. A beaded inner border separates the portrait field from the surrounding legend. The circumferential legend reads COURONNEMENT DE S.M. SRI SAVANG VATTHANA - 1971, running from lower left around the top to lower right in Latin characters. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | - COURONNEMENT DE S.M. SRI SAVANG VATTHANA - 1971 |
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| Additional information |
Savang Vatthana was crowned in 1959 but this commemorative was struck more than a decade later, an odd delay that reflects the catastrophic instability consuming Laos throughout the 1960s — the country was effectively a Cold War battlefield, with the Plain of Jars changing hands repeatedly between royalist, neutralist, and Pathet Lao forces. A formal coronation issue was simply not a priority while American bombers were flying sorties overhead.
Savang Vatthana would be the last king of Laos. The Pathet Lao abolished the monarchy in 1975 and he died in a re-education camp, likely around 1978 or 1984 — the exact date remains unknown.