5 Kip

The Banque Nationale du Laos was established in 1955 following the 1954 Geneva Accords, which ended French Indochinese administration and left the new Royal Lao Government needing a functioning central bank almost immediately. This first series of kip notes, of which the 5 Kip is part, replaced the Indochinese piastre at par — a straightforward conversion that nonetheless carried enormous political weight for a country that had never previously issued its own currency.

Security Banknote Company of Philadelphia printed relatively few sovereign series; their contract work tends to appear in smaller newly independent states during the 1950s. The question mark against their print date in most references reflects genuine uncertainty — no production records have been reliably published for this contract.