How do I avoid mixing up the banknotes?
Short answer
Go by length, not colour. Each polymer note is 4 mm longer than the one below it — 132 mm at 10,000 dong, 152 mm at 500,000 — and that ladder holds where colour fails. The tourism board warns in its own words that the 20,000 and the 500,000 are similar shades of blue, and they are twenty-five times apart.
Colour is the trap, and the tourism board says so
Vietnam Tourism puts the warning in plain words: the 20,000 dong note and the 500,000 dong note come in similar shades of blue, so double-check before you pay. The central bank's own descriptions line up — 20,000 is dark blue, 500,000 is blue and bluish purple.
There is a third blue in the wallet. The 5,000 note, one of the paper ones, is also dark blue. Reaching for colour first is what puts a 500,000 note into a 20,000 transaction.
Length is the tell
The polymer notes are a ladder. 10,000 is 132 mm, then 136, 140, 144, 148 and 152 mm at 500,000 — four millimetres per step, all the way up. Held side by side, the longer note is always the larger number.
This is the check that works in bad light and at speed: line the note up against one you already know rather than trying to read the zeros off a fold.
Polymer above, paper below
Everything from 10,000 to 500,000 is polymer — slick, with a transparent window. Everything at 5,000 and under is cotton paper: 5,000 dark blue, 2,000 dark brown, 1,000 purple, 500 lotus red, 200 reddish brown, 100 blackish brown.
So the feel of a note tells you which family you are in before you read anything. There are no coins in circulation, which means the entire cash system is this one ladder.
Good to know
- 20,000 and 500,000 are both blue — and 25 times apart
- Every step up is 4 mm longer: 132 mm to 152 mm
- Polymer from 10,000 up; cotton paper at 5,000 and below
- No coins are in circulation
