500 Apsars Vladislav Ardzinba

The apsar is a commemorative currency unit with no legal tender function in ordinary commerce — these notes were issued by the Bank of Abkhazia as collector pieces, denominated in a unit that exists nowhere in daily Abkhazian economic life. Vladislav Ardzinba was the first president of Abkhazia following the 1992–93 war with Georgia, a conflict that ended with Abkhazia's de facto independence but recognition from only a handful of states, Russia chief among them.

Goznak's involvement is the telling detail. Having the Russian state printer produce commemorative currency for a territory whose political existence depends almost entirely on Russian recognition is less a printing contract than a political statement rendered in paper and ink.