The name piastre (French pronunciation: [pjastʁ]), from Spanish pieces of eight (pesos), dates to the 16th century and has been used as the name of many different historical units of currency.

The currency of French Indochina was divided into the piastre, cent / centime, and sapèque units.

[1] The obverse of the banknotes and coins were inscribed in the French language, while the reverse side had inscriptions written in Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese Latin script, Lao, and Khmer scripts, but sometimes only French inscriptions were written.

[1] Prior to the arrival of the French in the Indochinese peninsula in the second half of the 19th century, cash coins similar to those used in the provinces of China circulated in the area that is nowadays known as Vietnam.

The French began their Indo-Chinese empire in 1862 with Cochinchina which is the area around the Mekong Delta and Saigon, and which is nowadays the extreme southern part of Vietnam.

This empire very quickly expanded to include Cambodia which had been a vassal state of the Kingdom of Siam.

The following year, in 1885, the French introduced a new silver piastre de commerce and associated subsidiary coinage throughout the entire Indo-Chinese colonies in order to increase monetary stability.

[5] On July 8, 1895, and later again on April 14, 1898, it was decreed that new silver French Indochinese piastre coins would be minted with a lower weight, which allowed them to stay in general circulation.

[5] These weights and denominations of the French Indochinese piastre would continue for some time until during and after World War I when the global value of silver had become very high.

[6] Despite this decree, a number Spanish or Philippine or Mexican silver coins that had been cut into halves, fourths and eighths would remain in circulation.

[6] Chopmarked piastres were also officially banned from circulation, while the native Vietnamese cash coins were still considered legal tender.

After World War I broke out, many local and French people in French Indochina became worried that the central powers would attack the colony and mass converted their Bank of Indochina banknotes into silver coins.

In 1952/53, the Lao kip (1952), Cambodian riel (1953), and South Vietnamese đồng (1953) were introduced at par with the piastre.

In addition, between 1952 and 1954, notes were introduced denominated in piastre and one of three new currencies, the Cambodian riel, Lao kip and South Vietnamese đồng.