5 Somoni Independence

Tajikistan declared independence in September 1991, but the years immediately following were consumed by a civil war that lasted until 1997 and left the country among the poorest in the former Soviet space. The somoni, named for Ismoil Somoni — the 9th-century Samanid ruler who has become the central figure of Tajik national identity — only replaced the Russian ruble in 2000, nearly a decade after independence. This 2006 issue marks fifteen years of sovereignty from a mint program still finding its footing.