1000 Roubles

Tajikistan's first national currency series arrived under severe pressure. The country had only left the Soviet ruble zone in 1995 — the 1994 date on these notes reflects printing preparation, not immediate release — and the transition coincided with an ongoing civil war that had devastated the economy and sent inflation spiraling well before a stable monetary framework existed.

The watermark is the sole security provision, a thin defense for a high-denomination note at a time when counterfeiting risk was considerable across former Soviet republics.