Vietnamese Dong

The dong (/dɒŋ/; Vietnamese: đồng [ɗəwŋm] (listen)) is the currency of Vietnam. It is subdivided into 10 hào, which were further subdivided into 10 xu, neither of which are now used. The word "dong" may derive from Chinese tóng qián (copper coin). The term "đồng" is of Sino-Vietnamese origin. The dong has been the currency of Vietnam since 1978. It replaced the Indochinese piastre, subdivided into 100 xu. The issuance of the dong was announced on May 3, 1978. The new currency had the same value as the piastre. The dong was initially pegged to the U.S. dollar at a rate of 1 dong = $0.000043. The rate was changed to 1 dong = $0.0000585 on January 1, 2002. The dong is currently the second-largest unit of currency in Vietnam after the U.S. dollar, with an exchange rate of 22,000 dong to 1 US dollar as of August 2018.