1 Hao

This coin dates to reunification year — the Democratic Republic of the North and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the South were formally merged on July 2, 1976, and the new Socialist Republic immediately needed a unified currency to replace the separate monetary systems that had operated on either side of the 17th parallel for over two decades. The State Bank issued this aluminium series as a provisional solution while the country's shattered postwar economy was being restructured.

Aluminium was chosen largely because domestic metal resources were limited and the denomination too small to justify anything costlier.