50 Đồng

By 1987, Vietnam's economy was in the grip of hyperinflation so severe that the đồng was losing value faster than notes could be printed. This 50 đồng denomination, which had been meaningful currency less than a decade earlier, was already functionally trivial at issue — roughly equivalent to fractions of a U.S. cent on the black market. The Đổi Mới reforms announced that same year began dismantling the centrally planned system, but monetary stabilization lagged badly behind policy.

A redenomination in 1985 had already wiped out zeros; by 1987 that correction had been effectively erased by inflation.