Flag of Cambodia
Various ancient kingdoms were located in present-day Cambodia, and the most notable was the Khmer Empire that lasted from the 9th to 15th century AD. The capital of this empire, Angkor, is considered to be the largest city in the world at its time. The majestic temple of Angkor Wat is still a popular tourist destination.
The Siamese Ayutthaya Kingdom sacked Angkor in 1431, marking the end of the Khmer Empire. Until the 19th century the region was either rules by Siamese or Vietnamese. In 1863 Cambodian King sought protection from France so it could break away from Siam. This protectorate became part of French Indochina quickly after.
King Sihanouk led Cambodia to independence from France in 1953. Sihanouk sought neutrality during the Vietnam Wars but was ousted in 1970 in a coup allegedly supported by the USA to gain an anti-communist stronghold. This led to a communist uprising by the Khmer Rouge supported by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, with the USA supporting the government. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge took power and its leader Pol Pot led a regime that murdered more than a million Cambodians. Even the communist Vietnamese were appalled by this situation and removed the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979. In 1993 democracy was restored and Sihanouk was reinstalled as King of Cambodia.
Currency
Until 1867 Cambodia used the Thai Baht (also named Tical). The French introduced the Cambodian Franc which was equal to the French Franc and worth roughly 1/3rd of a Baht. With the introduction of the French Indochinese Piastre in 1885 Cambodia replaced the Franc at 5.37 Francs per Piastre.
Cambodian independence caused the Riel to replace the Piastre at par. It was worth 10 old French Francs which corresponded with around $0.03 in the 1950's. After the 1970 coup no coins were used anymore, and during the Khmer Rouge era no currency was even used at all.
In 1980 a new Riel was introduced worth $0.25. Chronic inflation caused the exchange rate to drop to 4,000 Riels/$ by 2015. Cambodians prefer to use US Dollars and the Riel is only used in limited amounts.
Coins
There are some 19th century Cambodian Tical coins listed in the catalogue. I have never seen any for sale though so I don't know much about them.
The Cambodian Franc has a series of beautiful coins with denominations of 5, 10, 50 centimes, 1, 2 and 4 Francs. These coins are pretty rare.
After independence 3 aluminium coins of 10, 20 and 50 Sen circulated from 1953. No further circulation coins were issued until 1979 when a single aluminium 5 Sen was part of the new Second Riel. In 1994 a new series of Riel coins was issued, but inflation has made these coins obsolete.
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/cambodge-1.html
