5 Riels Bon Touristique

Cambodia's Ministère du Tourisme issued these bon touristique coupons as a parallel exchange mechanism — foreign visitors were required or encouraged to convert currency into these vouchers, which could then be spent at state-approved hotels, restaurants, and shops. The system gave the government tighter control over hard currency flows at a time when Sihanouk's administration was navigating a deliberately non-aligned economic policy between French commercial influence and emerging domestic nationalism.

These tourist bon issues from 1960 are scarce in any condition. The coupons were designed for consumption, not preservation, and the political upheavals of the following decade — culminating in the 1970 coup and subsequent civil war — ensured that most institutional records and surviving stocks were lost.