50 Riels

The 1979 series was the first currency issued after the Khmer Rouge regime collapsed and the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea took power. The Khmer Rouge had abolished money entirely in 1975 — banks were emptied, currency was rendered worthless overnight, and the entire population of Phnom Penh was forcibly evacuated. Reintroducing a functioning currency in 1979 meant rebuilding monetary infrastructure from near-zero.

The series was printed in the Soviet Union, reflecting the political alignment of the new government. Watermarking is simple by contemporary standards — an acknowledgment of practical constraints rather than any deliberate security philosophy.