Vietnamese dong through history Vietnamese banknotes have gone through many changes since they first appeared as colonial banknotes. After King Ho Quy Ly failed to enforce the law on using paper money instead of bronze coins, French Indochines piastre was the first banknote to have appeared in Vietnam. The note was circulated in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The French issued and maintained the notes from 1885 to 1954. French Indochines piastre After the August Revolution in 1945, the the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was born, and issued the first dong to replace the piastre. The numbers were presented in Vietnamese, Arabic, Chinese, Laotian and Khmer. The notes were circulated from 1946 to 1978.   Vietnamese dong in the north The Republic of Vietnam in the south also issued its own currency which was in circulation between 1954 and 1975. After reunification day in April 1975, the southern dong lost value and was renamed the "liberation dong". Vietnamese dong in the south  The modern Vietnamese dong has seen high levels of inflation, and so has gone through various changes over the years. The State Bank of Vietnam first issued notes in denominations of 1, 5,10, 20 and 50 dong. Higher denominations were added during the 20th century, including the 100 and 200 dong notes, but they were discontinued as inflation mounted.  5 hao note A banknote of 10 dong 50 Vietnam dong  The cotton notes that replaced them had much higher denominations, between 10,000 and 100,000. The 100,000 was still the highest banknote issued as of September 1, 2000. 100 Vietnam dong 200 Vietnam dong 20,000 Vietnam dong  50,000 Vietnam dong 100,000 Vietnam dong  In 2003, Vietnam replaced the cotton banknotes with plastic polymer bills and introduced the 500,000 note as the highest cash denomination. 50,000 polymer note                                              500,000 polymer note Ld, dantrinews