-^-for posterity-^-

most of my vietnamese money looks ancient. some of the bills look as if they’ve been in circulation for the past 30 years. all of the notes of lesser value are well worn. i regularly trade 1000 dong notes that have holes in the middle. 2000 dong notes that, while originally yellow, have long since turned brown. it was time for a change.

that change happened. it is now all the rage to possess a newly minted bill.

there are two new bills. there is a new 50,000 dong bill and a new 500,000 dong bill (so many zeros!). before yesterday, the highest denomination bill was 100,000 dong. that’s about 7 dollars. if you ever wanted to buy anything of substance, you had to walk around with a huge wad of cash. because the banks here aren’t that developed, it’s not common for transactions to happen electronically. everything happened with large bales of cash. now the bales will be a bit smaller.

the new 50,000 dong bill replaces an old bill that was bright green. the bill, as all vietnamese bills do, had a picture of uncle ho chi minh on the front. on the back, it showed an industrial scene. the new bill is very fancy. it is pink and purple. it still has uncle ho’s picture on the front but he is now surrounded by pieces of silver paper. the silver paper shows through on both sides and, i would imagine, it is very hard to counterfeit. the new 500,000 dong bill is green and also has the flashy pieces of silver embedded on both sides of uncle ho’s portrait.

this money revolution brought along with it three new coins. there is now a 200 dong coin, a 500 dong coin and a 5,000 dong coin. the coins will replace the well used, torn pieces of dirty paper most people carry around. before yesterday, there were no coins in vietnam. all transactions were carried out with paper. now everyone walks around with small pieces of silver in their pocket. everyone is happy and now everyone’s pocket jingles.