Matthew E. writes: I found at a garage sale some Vietnamese currency brought back from a soldier in the late 1960’s. It is written in Vietnamese, however, I can see it was printed by Thomas De La Rue & Company Limited. I have a “one”, 2 “fives” and a “10”. The “one” has blue ink, while the five and ten have a brown colored ink. All the currency show a young man with glasses and three medals pinned to his left breast. I have not been able to gain any information on this, could you help me?
Your notes are from Thailand, not Vietnam, and were issued between 1953 and 1955. The notes show a King Rama IX (Bhumiphol Adulyadej) in a Field Marshall’s uniform with collar insignia and three decorations. The issue was printed by Thomas De La Rue in London. This series was in use until replaced by the 1969 commemorative issue printed by Thai Banknote Printing Works, 24 June 2512 (1969). The denominations you have are 1, 5 and 10 Baht. During the Vietnam war Thailand was a common R&R destination for United States troops and left over currency from a good time there was a common souvenir.
Value range for average circulated specimens: 5 cents to 25 cents per note.
