Lao kip of the Soviet collapse in 1991 and the persistence of chronic inflation, there are no coins currently in circulation in Laos. In 1979, banknotes were introduced in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 kip. 500 kip notes were added in 1988, followed by 1000 kip in 1992, 2000 and 5000 kip in 1997, 10,000 and 20,000 kip in 2002 and 50,000 kip on January 17, 2006 (although dated 2004). On November 15, 2010 a 100,000 kip banknote was issued to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the founding of the capital, Vientiane, and the 35th anniversary of the
Leonard Kip a legal career when news of the mining bonanza at Sutter's Mill excited his curiosity and ambition. He became one of the fabled Forty-Niners, making the long voyage round Cape Horn to California. The rawness of San Francisco intrigued him without pleasing him. He saw it as “running wild after amusement” and seeking wealth in an “unnatural excitement which could not last”. After several months in mining country near Stockton, Kip left California predicting the collapse not only of gold fever but of any significant future the state due to “a climate presenting the most insufferable extremes of heat and