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500 Manat Pallas Cat
| Issuer | Turkmenistan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1996 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Manat (1993-2009) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Left-facing truncated bust of President Saparmurat Niyazov occupying the central field, rendered in high relief with fine portrait detail. The circular legend is divided into two arcs: TÜRKMENISTANYÑ PREZIDENTI across the upper field and SAPARMYRAT NYYAZOW along the lower field. The portrait is unadorned and depicted in a contemporary realistic style consistent with official state portraiture of the period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | TÜRKMENISTANYÑ PREZIDENTI SAPARMYRAT NYYAZOW |
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| Additional information |
Turkmenistan issued this coin just five years after declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, during a period when the newly sovereign state was aggressively minting commemorative silver for the international collector market — a strategy common among post-Soviet republics with little hard currency reserves but access to established minting infrastructure. The Pallas cat (Otocolobus manul), native to the Central Asian steppe, was a deliberate choice to signal distinct national identity separate from Soviet-era iconography.
The 500 Manat denomination was essentially nominal; by 1996 Turkmenistan's currency had been so devalued that this face value bore no meaningful relationship to the coin's silver content or market price.