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500 Tengas / Ten'gov
| Issuer | Bukhara Emirate Treasury |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in a multicolour letterpress style combining red, green, and yellow inks on plain paper. At centre, a large crescent and star vignette — the emblem of the Bukhara Emirate — is flanked by two cartouches bearing Arabic script inscriptions, with the denomination '500' rendered in both Arabic-script numerals and Cyrillic (ПЯТЬСОТ ТЕНЕГОВ) in red rectangular panels at lower left and right. The border is composed of interlaced ornamental frames with additional Arabic legends running along the lower register. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse repeats the multicolour letterpress format in red, green, and yellow. The central motif is a large pointed oval cartouche containing Arabic calligraphic text, surmounted by the crescent and star emblem in yellow. Four green oval panels with Arabic inscriptions are disposed symmetrically around the central device, while red rectangular panels at the corners and lower register carry the Cyrillic denomination ПЯТЬСОТ ТЕНГОВЪ and the numeral 500. |
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| Comments |
The Bukhara Emirate's paper currency was a late and reluctant concession to necessity. Emir Alim Khan resisted fiduciary notes for years — the regional economy ran on silver tangas — but the disruptions of the First World War and the collapse of Russian silver supply forced the issue. These treasury notes of 1918 were among the last monetary acts of an independent emirate; the Bolsheviks would depose Alim Khan in 1920.
The series is notoriously crude by any printing standard, produced locally under difficult conditions rather than by an established security printer. Paper quality and ink consistency vary considerably across surviving examples.