Vietnamese dong

Vietnamese dong
đồng Việt Nam (Vietnamese)
500,000 đồng 500 đồng
ISO 4217
Code	VND
Denominations
Subunit
1/10	hào
1/100	xu both subunits have been unused in Vietnam for several years
Symbol	₫ U+20AB ₫ DONG SIGN (HTML ₫)
Banknotes	100₫, 200₫, 500₫, 1,000₫, 2,000₫, 5,000₫ (these five - except for 100- are old issue, but still in circulation), 10,000₫, 20,000₫, 50,000₫, 100,000₫, 200,000₫, 500,000₫
Coins	200₫, 500₫, 1000₫, 2000₫, 5000₫ (no longer in use)
Demographics
User(s)	Vietnam
Issuance
Central bank	State Bank of Vietnam
Website	www.sbv.gov.vn
Valuation
Inflation	4.1%
Source	2014[1]

The đồng (/dɒŋ/; Vietnamese: [ˀɗɜwŋ͡m˨˩]; sign: ₫; code: VND) has been the currency of Vietnam since May 3, 1978. Issued by the State Bank of Vietnam, it is represented by the symbol "₫". Formerly, it was subdivided into 10 hào, which was further subdivided into 10 xu, neither of which is now used.

Etymology

The word đồng is from the term đồng tiền ("money"), a cognate of the Chinese tóng qián (Traditional Chinese: 銅錢; Simplified Chinese: 铜钱). The term refers to Chinese bronze coins used as currency during the dynastic periods of China and Vietnam. The term hào is a cognate of the Chinese háo (Chinese: 毫), meaning a tenth of a currency unit.

The sign is encoded U+20AB ₫ DONG SIGN (HTML ₫).

History

North Vietnam

In 1946, the Viet Minh government (later to become the government of North Vietnam) introduced its own currency, the đồng, to replace the French Indochinese piastre at par. Two revaluations followed, in 1951 and 1958; the first was at a rate of 100:1, the second at a rate of 1,000:1.

South Vietnam

Notes dually denominated in piastres and đồng were issued in 1953 for the State of Vietnam, which evolved into South Vietnam in 1954. On September 22, 1975, after the fall of Saigon, the currency in South Vietnam was changed to a "liberation đong" worth 500 old Southern đồng.

United Vietnam

After Vietnam was reunified, the đồng was also unified, on May 3, 1978. One new đồng equalled one Northern đồng or 0.8 Southern "liberation" đồng.

On September 14, 1985, the đồng was revalued, with the new đồng worth 10 old đồng. This started a cycle of chronic inflation that continued through much of the early 1990s.^[2]

Coins

For earlier modern Vietnamese coins, please see North Vietnamese đồng or South Vietnamese đồng.

First đồng

In 1978, aluminium coins (dated 1976), were introduced in denominations of 1, 2, and 5 hào and 1 đồng. The coins were minted by the Berlin mint in the German Democratic Republic and bear the state crest on the obverse and denomination on the reverse. Due to chronic inflation, these coins lost all their relevant value and no coins circulated for many years after this series.

Second đồng

Commemorative Issues

Commemorative coins in copper, brass, copper-nickel, silver, and gold have been issued since 1986, but none of these have ever been used in circulation.

2003 Issue

The State Bank of Vietnam resumed issuing coins on December 17, 2003.^[3] The new coins, minted by the Mint of Finland, were in denominations of 200, 500, 1,000, 2,000, and 5,000 đồng in either nickel clad steel or brass clad steel. Earlier, Vietnamese had to exchange banknotes for tokens with a clerk before purchasing goods from vending machines. This was also to help the state ease the cost of producing large quantities of small notes which tended to wear hard. Many residents expressed excitement at seeing coins reappear after many years, as well as concern for the limited usefulness of the 200 đồng coins due to ongoing inflationary pressures.^[4] There had been rumors of coins being mistaken for candies by children and as fakes by some vendors since coins had long been absent from use in Vietnam, these reports have been difficult to verify.

Since the launch of the 2003 coin series the State Bank has had some difficulties with making the acceptance of coins universal despite the partial discontinuation of smaller notes, to the point of some banks refusing coin cash deposits or the cashing in of large amounts of coins. This has prompted laws requiring private and municipal banks to transact and offer services for coins and the full discontinuation of small denomination and cotton based notes.

2003 Series[3]
Image	Value	Technical parameters				Description		Date of
		Diameter	Thickness	Mass	Composition	Obverse	Reverse	first minting	issue
[5][6]	200₫	20 mm	1.45 mm	3.2 g	Steel plated with nickel	Coat of arms	Denomination	2003	December 17, 2003
	500₫	22 mm	1.75 mm	4.5 g	Steel plated with nickel				April 1, 2004
[7][8]	1,000₫	19 mm	1.95 mm	3.8 g	Steel plated with a copper-zinc alloy	Coat of arms	Water Temple, Đô Temple	2003	December 17, 2003
[9][10]	2,000₫	23.5 mm	1.8 mm	5.1 g	Steel plated with a copper-zinc alloy		Ethnic house		April 1, 2004
	5,000₫	25.5 mm	2.2 mm	7.7 g	Copper alloy (Cu92Al6Ni2)		Một Cột Pagoda (One Pillar Pagoda)		December 17, 2003
These images are to scale at 2.5 pixels per millimeter. For table standards, see the coin specification table.

Banknotes

First đồng

In 1978, the State Bank of Vietnam (Ngân hàng Nhà nước Việt Nam) introduced notes in denominations of 5 hào, 1, 5, 10, 20, and 50 đồng dated 1976. In 1980, 2 and 10 đồng notes were added, followed by 30 and 100 đồng notes in 1981. These notes were discontinued in 1985 as they gradually lost value due to inflation and economic instability.

Second đồng

In 1985, notes were introduced in denominations of 5 hào, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, and 500 đồng. As inflation became endemic, these first banknotes were followed by 200, 1,000, 2,000, and 5,000 đồng notes in 1987, by 10,000 and 50,000 đồng notes in 1990, by a 20,000 đồng note in 1991, a 100,000 đồng note in 1994, a 500,000 đồng note in 2003, and a 200,000 đồng note in 2006. Banknotes with denominations of 5,000 đồng and under have been discontinued from production, but as of 2015 are still in wide circulation.

Five banknote series have appeared. Except for the current series, dated 2003, all were confusing to the user and lacked unified themes and coordination in their designs. The first table below shows the latest banknotes, of 100 đồng or higher, prior to the current series. On June 7, 2007, the government ordered cessation of the issuance of the cotton 50,000 and 100,000₫ notes. They were taken out of circulation by September 1, 2007. State Bank of Vietnam 10,000 and 20,000₫ cotton notes are no longer in circulation as of January 1, 2013.

In 2003 Vietnam began replacing its cotton banknotes with plastic polymer banknotes, claiming that this would reduce the cost of printing.^[11] Many newspapers in the country criticized these changes, citing mistakes in printing and alleging that the son of the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam benefited from printing contracts.^[11] The government clamped down on these criticisms by banning two newspapers from publishing for a month and considering other sanctions against other newspapers. Even though the 2003 series banknotes listed in the table below have now completely replaced the old notes of the same denominations, as of 2015 the cotton fiber banknotes of 200, 500, 1000, 2000 and 5,000 đồng still remain in wide circulation and are universally accepted.

A commemorative polymer 50-đồng banknote dedicated to the fiftieth anniversary of the State Bank of Vietnam was issued in 2001, but its face value is so tiny that it clearly was meant only for collectors. The note is available in three forms, by itself, in a presentation folder or in a presentation folder in and envelope. In 2016, a 100-đồng banknote was issued on cotton-based paper to commemorate the 65th anniversary of central banking.

Bearer's checks 1992–2002

To support growing industrial need for large money transactions, the State Bank issued "Bearer's Checks" or "State Bank Settlement Checks" (Ngân Phiếu Thanh Toán) in denominations from 100,000 to 5,000,000 đồng.^[19] To prevent counterfeiting, these notes had many degrees of protection, their designs were changed every five to six months, and they had expiration dates five or six months after the date of issue. The checks worked until the banking system was upgraded to handle electronic transfers of large amounts of đồng, making most large cash transactions unnecessary.

Other uses of đồng

In the Vietnamese language, "đồng" can be used as a generic term for any currency by adding the name of a country as a qualifier. This practice is more common for more esoteric units of currency.

In present-day Vietnam, một ngàn / một nghìn (one thousand) is widely understood as one thousand đồng.

Exchange rate

After the revaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar on 1 August 2006,^[20] the đồng became the least valued currency unit for months. Around 21 March 2007, the revalued Zimbabwean dollar regained least valued currency status (in terms of black market exchange rate), and on 7 September 2007 in terms of official exchange rate. After the use of the Zimbabwean dollar ceased on 12 April 2009,^[21] the đồng was the second least valued currency unit after the Iranian rial as of 28 November 2014. Since 19 June 2014, the Vietnamese dong has been devalued a total of five times in an effort to help spur exports and to ensure the stability of the currency.^[22]

(Source: tradingeconomics.com)

See also

• Vietnamese cash
• VND Index
• Economy of Vietnam

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Money of Vietnam.

• Current exchange rates
• Coins and Banknotes of Vietnam and French Indochina
• VND Index, a measure of global strength of Vietnam Dong
• Vietnam money through time
• Bringing money to Vietnam
• VND Exchange app on Appstore