Many lovely young ladies appeared on the colonial French notes issued for her far flung possessions around the world, unfortunately early on, most of them were French. Later on, with greater agitation by nationalists in her colonies, France began to issue paper money that showed the people from her diverse possessions instead of French women. This lovely note was issued in 1954, was issued in Cambodia, the reverse of the note has an image of Angkor Wat, but similar notes with different reverses were issued in Laos and in Viet-Nam. The three ladies are emblematic of the ethnic diversity of French Indochina, in this case represented by a Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese women. This note is P-97. This series of notes surely must be the inspiration for a similar note currently issued in Laos with three young Laotian girls seen here: http://www.geocities.com/scottishmoney/banknotes/laos/index.html
