Vietnamese Dong

Dong is the currency of Vietnam. This is being issued by the State Bank of Vietnam since 1978 and is divided into 10 hao. This was also the currency used in China long ago during the time of Dynasty. It is worth noting here, however, that the government has ceased issuing the sub-unit hao because it has become worthless.

The first Vietnamese dong was issued as coins, denominated into 5. This was issued in 1978. After quite a while, people thought of issuing notes or paper bills like in other countries for this is cheaper and is more convenient to use. Just imagine carrying tons of dongs if you need a thousand, wouldn’t that be so heavy?

The Bank of Vietnam issued 10 types of cotton notes. First is the 100 dong which was issued in 1992. This was followed by the Orange 200 dong issued in 1987; the pink dong which was issued on August 15, 1989; the multicolor on lime background 1000 dong and the multicolor 2000 dong both issued in October 20, 1989; the blue 5000 dong released in January 15, 1993; the red 10000 dong issued on October 15, 1994; the blue 20000 dong issued on march 2, 1993; the green 50000 dong issued in October 15, 1994; and lastly the brown 100000 dong which was issued on September 1, 2000.

These sets of cotton notes were replaced by polymer notes in 2003, which includes the 10,000 VND, 20,000 VND, 50,000 VND, 100,000 VND, 200,000 VND, and the 500,000 VND. This has been an issue in the country; people say that it is not the people of Vietnam who will benefit from the change but the son of the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam. Nevertheless, it was released and was used by people as replacement since they have to follow what the leaders say.

The value of Vietnam dong in the world market has been greatly affected by the Vietnam war. During those times, the country was in deep trouble, because the leaders of the country were corrupt. Aside from the fact that the people of the state were being greatly manipulated by the leaders, they did not give focus to their economic standing in the international scene.

Vietnamese Dong