5000 Manat

The 2005 series was issued during the final years of Saparmurat Niyazov's presidency — a period when Turkmenistan's currency denominations had ballooned dramatically following the hyperinflationary collapse of the early 1990s, making high-value notes like this one a practical necessity for ordinary transactions rather than a prestige denomination. Niyazov's government had rejected a redenomination until after his death in late 2006, so this note entered circulation knowing it would have a short lifespan.

De La Rue printed the series to relatively modest security specifications — watermark only, with no metallic thread. For a denomination of this face value at the time, that was a thin barrier against counterfeiting.