South Korea provided the second largest contingent of foreign soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War on the side of South Vietnam. Military Payment Certificate (MPC) was the currency in which South Korean soldiers stationed in Vietnam were paid (1966 ~ 1972). Paying soldiers in MPC was an effort to keep the introduction of stronger foreign currencies, like the won (and especially U.S. dollars from American soldiers) from inflating and destabilizing the local Vietnamese currency, the piastre. It also kept the black market operators and soldiers from profiting from currency arbitrage. Since South Korean soldiers have always been paid paltry monthly wages, this MPC is denominated as "10 Jeon" or one-tenth of a won. The monthly pay for a Private in the Korean army was probably only enough to supply him with a few packs of cigarettes. Today, Korean collectors will have to pay dearly to own one of these rare, original South Korean MPC. What was once "kind of worthless" is now worth hundreds of dollars in the collector market!
Similar coupons were used by Thai troops in Vietnam who were also paid in MPC. The coupons are not money and had no value themselves. The Korean and Thai troops received their pay in US MPC and also received the equivalent in coupons. It was necessary to present both MPC and the same amount in coupons when making purchases at official facilities. That way there could never be more MPC spent by these troops than was received in pay. It was supposed to prevent them from blackmarketing in MPC and then spending it at the US exchanges. They are listed in Schwan's catalog of US MPC.
The curious thing about C-days in Vietnam was that the locals that were taking MPC as payment in violation of policy often knew in advance that the C-day was coming and that they had to get rid of the MPC they had and stop taking more. My father served in Vietnam and his returning was what got me into collecting in the first place - some of my first coins and banknotes were Vietnamese and a small stack of MPCs he had because he missed a C-day while out on a mission.
I was there when they changed the currency before it lost all value. We had 24 hours to exchange the old MPC issue for the new. One guy had a soda concession through a refrigerator in the hooch. He was off base for a few days for some reason and couldn't change his script which became worthless. Not happy. Somehow the Vietnamese workers got wind of the change in advance and cashed in however they did it. Interesting times.
There were four different series of Korean coupons and three different series of Thai coupons. The denomination on the coupons matched the denomination of MPC then in circulation so they are 5 cent through 20 dollars. They began being used in 1969.
