1000 Dong, State Bank of Vietnam, 1988

A note of the great Vietnamese inflation. Dated 1988 and released into circulation in October 1989, it belongs to the State Bank of Vietnam series issued as prices spiralled in the years when the command economy was breaking down — the crisis that pushed the Party into the Đổi Mới ("renovation") reforms of 1986 and the shift toward a market economy. Denominations climbed quickly, and a 1,000-dong note that had once been substantial was soon small change.

The face carries the portrait of Hồ Chí Minh, the founder of the republic, beside the national emblem and a border of lotus, the flower long tied to him and to Vietnamese identity. The reverse leaves politics for labour, showing elephants hauling timber through forest — a scene of the logging of the central highlands, where working elephants still dragged felled logs. It is a quietly rural image on a note whose real story is the monetary turmoil that produced it.