Making sense of the đồng.
Six zeros stop being scary once you know one trick — and once you can tell the dangerous blue notes apart.
The mental trick
Drop the last 3 zeros, then divide by ~26.
Type any VND amount
VND
200,000
Drop 3 zeros
200
≈ USD
$8
Anchor prices · build intuition
Memorize five. Estimate everything.
10,000đ
≈ $0
bottle of water
50,000đ
≈ $2
bowl of phở
100,000đ
≈ $4
decent lunch
500,000đ
≈ $19
nice dinner for two
1,000,000đ
≈ $38
mid-range hotel night
The notes · recognize them
Polymer notes, by color.
All Vietnamese notes are polymer. The 500,000 and 20,000 are dangerously similar blue — the #1 source of note-switch scams.
Dark blue-violet
Back: Hồ Chí Minh's house, Kim Liên
polymer · 152 × 65 mm · 17/12/2003
⚠ Easily confused with 20,000
Red-brown
Back: Hạ Long Bay
polymer · 148 × 65 mm · 30/08/2006
Dark green
Back: Temple of Literature
polymer · 144 × 65 mm · 01/09/2004
Red-purple-brown
Back: Phu Văn Lâu, Huế
polymer · 140 × 65 mm · 17/12/2003
Dark cyan
Back: Japanese Covered Bridge, Hội An
polymer · 136 × 65 mm · 17/05/2006
⚠ Looks like 500,000!
Dark brown on yellow-green
Back: Offshore oil & gas
polymer · 132 × 60 mm · 30/08/2006
Dark cyan
Back: Trị An hydropower
cotton · 134 × 64 mm · 15/01/1993
Dark brown
Back: Textile factory
cotton · 134 × 65 mm · 20/10/1989
Purple
Back: Timber harvest
cotton · 134 × 65 mm · 20/10/1989
Lotus pink
Back: Hải Phòng port
cotton · 130 × 65 mm · 15/08/1989
Red-brown
Back: Agriculture
cotton · 130 × 65 mm · 30/09/1987
Dark brown
Back: Phổ Minh tower
cotton · 120 × 59 mm · 02/05/1992
Coins exist but are rare — ignore them. Everything is notes.
Front of every note: President Hồ Chí Minh · Source: State Bank of Vietnam · Learn the 6 security checks →
Test yourself
Can you tell the blue notes apart?
A 6-question drill. Pass it before you land.
I'll weave this into your trip
Done reading? I'll handle the planning
Everything in these hubs is applied automatically when I build your itinerary. No copy-paste needed.
