What is the official currency of Vietnam, whose name literally means “copper” in Vietnamese?

The official currency of Vietnam, whose name literally means “copper” in Vietnamese, is the Vietnamese đồng.

The word đồng refers to copper, recalling the copper coins historically used in Vietnam and across East Asia. Vietnam introduced the đồng in 1946 in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. South Vietnam later issued its own đồng, and a unified currency was established after reunification.

The đồng is divided officially into 10 hào or 100 xu, although these smaller units are no longer used in everyday transactions because of inflation. Modern Vietnamese banknotes are denominated in thousands of đồng, with the 500,000-đồng note among the highest-value commonly issued denominations.

The currency symbol is ₫, while the international code is VND. English-language writing often spells the name “dong,” but “đồng” is the Vietnamese form and includes the letter đ.