Lao kip banknotes

Lao kip banknotes comprise the paper currency issues of Laos, which originated during the mid-twentieth century. In 1945–1946, the Free Lao government in Vientiane released an initial series denominated in att and kip prior to French authorities taking control of the region. The currency was reintroduced in 1953, replacing the French Indochinese piastre at par. The earliest of these post-colonial paper issues were produced by the Laos branch of the Institut d'Émission des États du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam, featuring dual denominations expressed in both piastres and kip across values of 1, 5, 10, and 100 kip/piastres.

From 1957, the royal government issued notes denominated solely in kip. Several international security printing houses were employed across this period: the Security Banknote Company printed the initial 1 to 50 kip denominations, the Banque de France printed the 100 kip note, and Thomas De La Rue produced a commemorative 500 kip note. Later royal series incorporated printings by Bradbury & Wilkinson as well as De La Rue, spanning values up to 5,000 kip. Concurrently, from 1968, the Pathet Lao issued Chinese-printed "liberation kip" notes for areas under its control, which subsequently replaced the royal kip nationally in 1976.

On 16 December 1979, the Lao People's Democratic Republic replaced the liberation kip at a rate of one hundred to one with a new national kip currency. Banknotes were introduced in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 kip, with higher denominations added over subsequent decades ranging from 500 kip in 1988 up to 100,000 kip. A prominent visual feature across modern high-denomination notes, including the 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, and 100,000 kip denominations, is the portrait of Kaysone Phomvihane on the obverse.