50 Manat

Turkmenistan's 2005 banknote series was issued under Saparmurat Niyazov — "Turkmenbashi" — whose personality cult at the time rivaled almost anything in the post-Soviet world. The Central Bank operated under extraordinary political constraints during this period, with monetary policy effectively subordinate to Niyazov's state-building projects and the revenue flows from natural gas exports.

De La Rue's involvement brought professional security printing to a country that had only established its own currency, the manat, in 1993 after breaking from the Soviet ruble zone. The watermark is the sole listed security feature — relatively sparse for a mid-2000s high-denomination note.