5000 Đồng

The Ministry of Finance, rather than the State Bank of Vietnam, issued this note — a distinction that matters. Finance Ministry issues were a parallel domestic currency instrument, generally used for lower-denomination retail circulation while the State Bank handled larger monetary policy instruments. By 1988, Vietnam was in the middle of Đổi Mới, the economic reform program launched in 1986, and the currency system was under serious strain from hyperinflation that had been running at several hundred percent annually.

A major redenomination had already occurred in 1985, when old đồng were exchanged at 10:1. This note belongs to the chaotic period that followed, before the State Bank consolidated control over issuance in the early 1990s.