Three female profiles on the obverse and a rice plant on the reverse: this is one of the very first coins of the dong, introduced in 1953 by the State of Vietnam under Bao Dai.

The 10 su is the smallest value of the first series, which comprised 10, 20 and 50 su. Both sides are the work of the French medallist Lucien Bazor, and the Paris Mint struck 20 million of them. The obverse reads «QUỐC-GIA VIỆT-NAM», meaning «State of Vietnam», with the date; the reverse reads «VIỆT-NAM» and the value «10 SU».

The name of the subunit is spelled the French way, «SU». Later, under the Republic of Vietnam, coins switched to the Vietnamese spelling «XU», so a single letter separates the Bao Dai era from the next.

Grade AU-UNC sits between aUNC and UNC: little or no trace of circulation, lustre retained. For an aluminium coin more than seventy years old that is a fine survival, since the soft metal easily loses the fine relief of the women’s faces.

The VPcoins catalogue includes both modern commemorative issues and coins of past eras.