Tran Van Nam, 28, a male resident of Da Nang’s Thanh Khe District, showed his great passion for collecting old Vietnamese and foreign banknotes during his high school years. Till date, he has owned collections of rare and valuable banknotes, as well as earned a monthly income of millions of VND from selling his old banknote collections.  

Nam’s collection of banknotes issued the National Liberation Front of Southern Viet Nam in 1964

After graduating with a Master's degree from a Japanese university, Nam worked as a teaching assistant at the Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry. Finally, he decided to quit his well-paying job in order to pursue his passion for collecting old Vietnamese and foreign banknotes.

During his stay in Japan, the young man had the chance to collect a number of rare old world banknotes, which opened up a new chapter in his life in collecting and selling old banknotes.

The Da Nang collector has collected banknotes from around the world, and Viet Nam since the French colonial period.

To enrich his collections, Nam has spent a lot of time and money on collecting old world banknotes from antique markets in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The highlight of Nam’s collections is a 5 Piastres banknote issued by Japanese government in 1944.

According to Nam’s research, 5 Piastres banknote was issued by Japan in 1944. At this time, Japan allowed to print 2 additional currency of 1 Piastre and 5 Piastres. After being printed, the two currencies were transported to the Indochina for circulation by warships. But, unfortunately, Japan’s warship which transported boxes of 5 Piastres banknote sank after the aggressive attack by allied warplanes, so such notes are quite rare today.

Noticeably, Nam wrote his first book about things you may not know about old world banknotes and his book was published in 2018 by the Ho Chi Minh City Cultural And Arts Publishing House.

Nam is planning to open the first-ever Da Nang coffee shop which will showcase his old banknote collections next year.

His new coffee shop can be seen as a banknote gallery where Nam can introduce his valuable collections to the public. It will be a great place for collectors of banknotes across Viet Nam to meet and share their experience.  

By XUAN DONG - Translated by M.D