5000 Kip - Savang Vatthana Coronation

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.