10 Manat

Turkmenistan's first sovereign currency series launched in November 1993, when the country introduced the manat to replace the Soviet ruble just two years after independence. The Canadian Bank Note Company in Ottawa handled production of the entire inaugural series — an unusual choice for a Central Asian state, but one driven by the practical reality that no regional printer had the capacity or security infrastructure to handle a new national currency on short notice.

The P#3 is among the lower denominations of that first issue, which ran from 1 to 500 manat. Rampant inflation quickly rendered the smaller notes economically marginal, and a heavily redesigned second series followed in 1995.