of 200, 500, 1,000, 2,000, and 5,000 dong still remain in wide circulation and are universally accepted. A commemorative polymer 50 dong 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 an envelope. In 2016, a 100 dong banknote was issued on cotton-based paper to commemorate the 65th anniversary of central banking. Bearer's checks 1992–2002 To support the 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 dong. 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 dong 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, when mentioning an amount of money, the currency can be (and usually is) omitted and is replaced by words like "thousand", "million", and "billion". Exchange rate After the revaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar on 1 August 2006, the dong 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, the dong 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. (Sources: tradingeconomics.com, imf.org) See also Vietnamese cash VND Index Economy of Vietnam References External links Coins and Banknotes of Vietnam and French Indochina Currency symbols Currencies of Vietnam Currencies introduced in 1978